Dr Luke Stone Returns
by knigs43
Summary: Luke returns to the hospital that he left in both awful and the best of circumstances. Life has moved on for Luke and Alice but many things about this hospital have stayed the same. Join Luke and Alice on their return to Holby City ED for more adventures and see how their lives have changed in the 3 years that they have been away. Credit to Casualty and Chicago Med for storylines.
1. Chapter 1

Jeff and Dixie were tidying the back of the ambulance when they saw a lady drive past on a moped.

"I could see on the back of one of those, driving through the Italian Riviera, livin' la vida loca." Jeff joked to Dixie.

"Dolce vita Jefferey." Dixie replied, looking at her phone.

"French riviera then. Who's that?" Jeff asked.

"Don't know, just says turn around."

Jeff turned around. "Oh mate."

Jeff was very surprised to see who was stood there. Dixie turned around as well, she had a wide grin on her face too.

"You can be my wingman anytime." Jeff said to the man that was stood there.

"Hell no, you can be mine." The man replied.

Jeff stood there for a few seconds and then went over to his friend and gave him a massive hug.

"Oh, its good to see you Lukey boy." Jeff said.

"It's good to see you too Jeffrey. It's good to see you too." Luke replied.

Jeff broke out of the hug and let Dixie have her turn.

"Don't I get one too?" A female voice said.

"Alice!" Dixie said going over to her but stopped before she got there and looked at her. "No!"

Alice nodded excitedly. She rubbed her stomach, Alice was pregnant.

"Oh my god! That's fantastic. How far gone?" Dixie said hugging her almost in tears.

"3 months. The little terrors give me awful morning sickness though." Alice smiled.

"Terrors?" As in multiple? Twins?" Dixie asked.

Alice nodded. Dixie give both Luke and Alice another huge hug.

"Why didn't you say you were coming back." Jeff asked.

"I didn't want to ruin the surprise now." Luke told him.

Jeff and Luke chatted with each other whilst Alice and Dixie did the same. The last time that Luke had really seen anyone from the hospital was his wedding day, almost 2 years ago. After Luke and Alice got married, they stuck around in Holby for a while but then job offers that required Luke to move abroad for a few months here and there prevented him from keeping in contract with his friends as much as he liked. Of course, he still messaged them on social media, but it wasn't the same as seeing his friends face to face. He was excited to be back at Holby. He might have left on a sombre note, following the death of Heather Whitefield. Heather was an F2 that had died on her first day on a shout that she had gone on with Luke. He blamed himself for her death and decided to leave the hospital. But now was the time for him to come back, it felt right. His adoptive daughter, Maisie, was at university studying medicine to become a doctor like Luke. Luke adopted Maisie following the deaths of her parents on his first day at the hospital. As well as this his sister, Lilia, was growing up and needed stability in her education. Luke began looking after his sister after their mum, left Holby to return to Australia following her diagnosis with terminal cancer. She decided it would be better for Luke to look after her than watch her mum die.

The four of them went into the ED. Luke looked around, it hadn't changed much. It was still pretty much as he remembered. It felt good to be back. He hadn't worked in hospital in England for a long time now, so to be coming to somewhere the felt like home was the best feeling.

"Control to 3006" Jeff's radio called.

"And this is where we leave you." Jeff said to Luke. "Pub later on?"

"I thought you'd never ask." Luke replied.

Jeff and Dixie bid farewell to their old friends before they turned and left the ED. Luke took hold of Alice's hand and walked over to the reception desk, where they saw Noel was still in charge. He was busy working on his computer when they got there.

"How can I help?" He said as he continued with his typing.

"Yeah, I'm here to see Zoe Hanna." Luke replied.

"Ok…wait." Noel looked up. "Luke!"

Noel lent across his desk and hugged Luke just like Jeff and Dixie had. He looked around the ED.

"Mac! Look who it is!" Noel called out to his best friend, Big Mac.

"Well aren't you two a sight for sore eyes." Mac said in his strong Welsh accent.

Soon several members of the department that were worked with Luke and Alice before started to come over say hello and comment on Alice's baby bump. Several newer members of the department watched on confused but then started to introduce themselves.

"Hi, I'm Robyn and this is Jamie" One of the nurses said.

"Dr Sam Nicholls." One lady said.

Once Luke and Alice had been reacquainted and introduced. They went over to Zoe's office. They knocked on the door. Just before Luke left, this had once been his office that he shared with his old friend, Adam Truman.

"Yeah." Zoe called out.

Luke and Alice went in.

"Well, it has taken you long enough to get in that chair." Luke said to her.

"It's taken long enough for you to come back." Zoe replied wittily.

Then just like everyone else, she embraced them both in a warm hug.

"It is so good to have you both back. Alice your looking radiant, pregnancy suits you. Tess and Charlie are waiting for you." Zoe said to her.

"Cool, I'll leave you to catch up." Alice said standing up. She kissed Luke's cheek before leaving the office to go and find Tess and Charlie.

"Well then deputy." Zoe said leaning back in her chair. "How does it feel to be back?"

"Honestly, like I never left. What's the plan then boss?" Luke asked.

Before Zoe could reply, there was a knock at the door. In came a doctor that Luke hadn't met yet.

"Ah. Luke meet Dr Martin Ashford, one of our fellow consultants." Zoe explained.

Luke stood up and shook Martin's hand.

"Please call me Ash, everyone else does." Ash said to Luke warmly.

"Dr Luke Stone and I will answer to pretty much anything." Luke replied.

Ash sat in the chair next to Luke's whilst Zoe explained what was going to happen today. Luke and Ash got better acquainted with each other. Just then there was another knock at the door. It was Noel.

"Dr Hanna, this is Dr Lily…"

"Dr Lily Chao." The lady said rather rudely cutting off Noel.

Luke didn't know what to think of her just yet, maybe his opinions would change as the day went on. Zoe introduced both Ash and Luke. Apparently, Ash and Lily had bumped into each other earlier on in the car park. Luke offered Lily his seat whilst Zoe found Lily's file.

"So you've come with us after a six month rotation in gerontology." Zoe said.

"That is correct." Lily responded.

"How was it?" Luke asked.

"Old people are either very sweet or very rude." Lily answered.

Luke tried to hide his snigger.

"And medical?" Zoe asked.

"By the time they've reached that age, you aren't really curing them but more maintaining them."

The three consultants looked at each other not really knowing what to make of her response.

"I trust you wouldn't say that to an elder patient." Ash wondered.

"No, of course not. If I did, I would be stuck talking to them for hours." Luke supposed Lily was trying to be funny, but it wasn't really working, and Zoe certainly didn't look impressed.

"Is this your first ED placement?" Zoe asked.

"Yes." Lily nodded.

"And what are you expecting?" Zoe continued.

"All of human life." Lily said confidently.

"You think you can cope with that?" Luke wondered.

"Of course, a human body is a human body. There's only so many ways it can be fixed and so many ways it can break down." Lily carried on.

"That isn't always true. There isn't always a right or wrong answer, you'll find that out here." Zoe said shutting Lily down.

Zoe stood up and walked towards the door. Lily, Luke and Ash all followed her.

"Yes, but if way doesn't work you try another. And if that doesn't work you keep trying but if nothing works…you die." Lily said trying to outsmart Zoe.

"What do you hope to get out of your time here with us?" Luke asked.

"After completing my training and a couple of hospital jobs, I would like to be living in the countryside with my husband." Lily replied.

"Oh, I didn't realise you were married." Luke said.

"My future husband." She explained. "By that time, I'll be specialising in dermatology."

"Why dermatology?" Zoe asked.

"That's where the money is. It is also of special interest to me, if making a blog on skin care." Lily said abruptly. "Which moisturiser do you use?"

"An expensive one." Zoe said bluntly. "How about you Dr Stone?"

"Which ever the wife buys." Luke laughed.

"Dr Ashford?" Zoe carried on.

"I…." Ash began.

"Your skin looks a little dry. I'll bring you some samples." Lily cut off Ash.

"Perfect, because Dr Ashford is going to be your mentor." Zoe smiled.

"If you would follow me this way." Ash said, leading Lily away.

Zoe and Luke carried on walked with each other around the ED.

"She was certainly something." Luke said.

"That doesn't even come close." Zoe laughed. "Right I'll see you later."

"Yeah see you." Luke smiled.

Luke walked around the ED. He put his bag away and sorted himself out with a new stethoscope. Once Luke was ready, he stood at the nurse's station and he could already see Alice getting stuck in, this made him smile. Then he heard the ambulance bay doors open, Luke rolled up the sleeves on his shirt and pulled on a pair of gloves and walked over.

"Ok Luke, this is Suzanne Bridger. 32 years old, rolled her car at 30 miles an hour. No other vehicles involved, she hasn't KO'd. GCS has been 14 and 15 on the way here. She has facial laceration and bruising to her face probably caused by the airbag and chest injury most likely from the seat belt. BP is 125 systolic, pulse is 80 and we've given her five of morphine." Jeff explained.

"Thanks Jeff. Hi Suzanne, I'm Luke one of the doctors here. We are just going to move you across on to the bed ok."

Lily walked through just as they were about to move Suzanne.

"Lily can I borrow you?" Luke asked.

"Sure." She replied.

"Ok, ready? 1,2,3," Jeff said.

They lift Suzanne off the trolley and across on to the bed.

"She was trying to escape from three men, the police are on their way." Jeff added.

"Did they hurt you?"

"No, I stayed in the car, but I think I ran one of them when I tried to get away." Suzanne said through the pain.

"Ok, not to worry. You'll have plenty of time to talk to the police, let's just focus on fixing you." Luke said as he listened to Suzanne's chest. "Ok, guys I would like to do a log roll."

They rolled Suzanne on to her side to move the spinal board out of the way. Luke felt down Suzanne's back. She winced.

"Does it hurt there?" Luke asked.

"A little." Suzanne winced.

"Let's get her back flat ok." Luke said. The team laid her back down. "Ok, let's get her on some monitoring please. I'm just going to feel your neck Suzanne."

Luke released the collar from around Suzanne's neck and he began to feel for anything damaged. "Is that tender?"

"Yeah." Suzanne replied.

"Ok." Luke said putting the collar back on. "I'm going to need a head and neck scan please. Ok Suzanne, I'm just going to feel around for any more damage."

Luke felt Suzanne's arms and legs for anything else that was causing her pain or discomfort. Luke felt Suzanne for a while whilst he arranged for her scans and waited for the results. When they came back they were clear, so he was able to take off her collar. Lily came back to help him, whilst Luke was treating Suzanne another patient came in.

"Lily can you go help over there for me please." He asked Lily. Of course, she agreed. "Ok Sam, this is Lily Chao one of our new F2s she's coming to help."

"Of course." Sam called back. He then heard her begin to introduce herself and explain what was going on.

Luke turned his attention back to the treatment of Suzanne.

As they day progressed, Luke continued to see and hear reports about the way that Lily was talking to not only staff but patients as well. Luke decided that he needed to intervene.

"Dr Chao, can I have word please?" Luke said when she was looking over some results.

Lily followed Luke into the staffroom.

"Now I might not be your mentor, but I want you to listen to me and I want you to listen to me very carefully. There is more to being a doctor than just assessing and treating patients. There's an old-fashioned phrase that I was taught when I was in your position, bed side manner. All the best doctors have a good bed side manner, right now you don't…" Luke began.

"Hold on, I thought I was doing a good job." Lily cut in.

However, Luke spoke over her. "I might have only came back to work in this ED today but this ED is a team. We protect each other, work with each other, rub alongside each other as best as we can. The nursing staff are your friends and you really want them on your side. Also, you have no business talking to some of your patients like you have, specifically Elliott Thomas."

"If I hadn't have pushed him we might have let him walk out of here infected with TB." Lily said.

"You made a judgement call which meant you commented on his personal life. That is nothing to do with clinical decision making, you also did in front of his wife I'm told. Now, let's try and get through the rest of today without repeating any of those mistakes." Luke finished.

Luke left Lily too think about what he had just said and went back to work.

Luke was sat in Zoe's office at the end of his shift with Charlie and Ash at the end of the shift, unsurprisingly they were talking about Lily.

"She accused a married man of having an affair in front of his wife." Zoe said.

"I don't intend on writing a glowing report of her days work." Ash replied.

"She's also the first doctor I've ever met who's keen on doing her own paperwork." Charlie joked.

"Tess is going to love her." Luke laughed.

"We are going to have fun with this one. Let's just try and get her to stop being so rude to people then we can pack her off to her Harley Street Skin Care clinic." Zoe said as she got her things together ready to leave.

"I don't know…." Ash said.

"What? You actually like her." Zoe said flabbergasted.

"Like is a very strong word, a very strong word. But I think she has got something. A little bit of personal charm, she could be a brilliant ED doctor." Ash continued.

"Ok then, Michelin starred dinner says that you'll ask me to get rid of her before her time is up." Zoe offered Ash her hand. Ash shock Zoe's hand. "Boys you're my witness to this."

"Actually, I'll have a slice of that action." Charlie said.

"So will I." Luke joined in.

"Ok Michelin starred dinner says that I'll have her committed to being an ED doctor by the end of her rotation." Ash proposed.

"Deal." Everyone else agreed.

"Pub?" Charlie proposed.

"Not tonight, Charlie. I've got to get home and reveal Maisie of looking after Lilia so she can go out tonight." Luke said.

"Alright, then." Charlie replied.

Luke bid farewell to his old friends and new. When got to his car, Alice was there waiting for him already.

"Good day?" She asked.

"Like I've never been away." Luke replied as he got in the car.


	2. Chapter 2

Luke was stood at reception giving Noel some paperwork when a man came over to see him.

"You're late. Traffic?" Noel said to him.

"No dentist, Tess okayed it before I went away. Is she about?" He asked Noel.

"She's on leave and Charlie's called in sick, which means you're the senior nurse." Noel handed the man a pile of paperwork. "Oh, and before I forget this is Dr Luke Stone, senior consultant and deputy clinical lead. Luke meet Adrian Fletcher."

"Fletch." The man said, offering Luke his hand.

"Luke." Luke said shaking Fletch's hand.

Just then Ash and Lily walked past, Fletch wandered off with them whilst Luke returned to what he was doing. Then he heard the ambulance bay doors open, and off Luke went.

"What have we got?" Luke asked Dixie.

"This is Claire Tanner, 42. Possible crush injuries to her chest, pelvis and legs. Query fracture right femur couldn't tolerate a traction splint. She's had 500 of saline and 10 of morphine, she's not responding well to pain relief." Dixie explained.

"Ok, let's get her through to resus. Hi Claire, I'm Luke one of the doctors here at the ED."

They got Claire into resus and across on to one of the beds.

Luke listened to Claire's chest. "Ok breathing and airway are clear."

"Is there anyone you want us to call for you?" Fletch asked.

"No." Claire replied.

"Call my dad." Claire's son, Joseph, told Fletch. "Tell him, he has to come."

"Ok mate." Fletch told him.

"Pulse is 100, BP is 131 over 80. Bloods?" Nurse Rita Freeman, she had only started today, asked.

"Yes please. FBC, U's and E's, Venus blood gas and let's cross match her four units. I'll also need film of c-spine, pelvis and chest and I'll do a fast scan. Ok Claire, it doesn't look like you have any major organ damage, but you do have multiple cracked ribs which is what is making it difficult to breath." Luke explained. He then turned one of the other nurses. "Let's get her some more morphine. Claire, I'm going to get the surgeons to come down and assess you. Can we get her a bed Fletch?"

"No-one's answering. I'll go and sort it out. I'll get a number for your dad as well Joseph." Fletch said before leaving resus.

Luke turned back to Rita. "Let's get those bloods off. Do you know Big Mac? Big guy, goatee, Welsh?"

"I'll find him." Rita said to Luke. "Joseph, why don't we go and find the shop together and you can get some sweets."

Joseph went over to him mum. "Are you sure you are going to be ok?"

"Of course. Now no wandering off." She said to him.

"He'll be fine." Rita reassured Claire as she took Joseph out of resus and to the shop.

Luke returned to Claire about an hour later. "Ok Claire, we've cleared your c-spine with the results of your x-rays and neck examinations. Also, your chest and pelvis films are normal. I am afraid is going to hurt however, I need to straight out your leg to stop the bones rubbing together from where you broke your femur."

"We've given you some ketamine for the pain, but this is Entonox, I want you to breath this in and out and this will help take the edge off as well." Fletch said handing the breathing tube.

Luke began to straighten out Claire's leg. "Nice deep breaths for me, almost done…there we go. I know that was nasty but now I've separated the bones this should start to ease the pain."

"My chest…it hurts." Claire said to Luke.

"You do have significant bruising on your chest." Luke explained.

"It's agony." Claire continued.

"I can give you some more pain relief, but you are still going to be in some discomfort." Luke said to Claire. "The orthopaedic surgeons are on there way down to talk you through the next stage of treating your leg, but I am afraid you are going to need an operation."

Claire groaned in pain.

"How are we doing with that bed?" Luke asked Fletch.

"Bed manager is on to it." He replied.

Luke left resus and was walking towards the staffroom when he bumped into Alice. Luke pulled her into the staffroom.

"Hey you." He smiled.

"Hey." She replied.

"How's my favourite nurse doing today?" Luke asked.

"She's doing just great. How about you?"

"Pretty good. Better now I've seen you."

Luke leaned in and kissed Alice.

"Stop, people will see." Alice replied.

"Never stopped you before." He laughed.

"Oh hush. We never did it a room that is almost all windows." She joked back.

"Oh ok, fair point. Look the real reason, I brought you in here was to see if you wanted to go out tonight." Luke asked.

"Sure, do you have anything planned."

"Surprise." He told her.

Just then there was a knock at the door. It was Jamie.

"What's up Jamie?" Luke asked.

"Are you alright to come and see a patient, no-one else is available at the moment." Jamie said.

"Sure, lead the way." Luke said as he picked up his stethoscope. He kissed Alice on the cheek. "See you later."

Luke followed Jamie to a cubicle where a man was sat on the bed, he had been beaten up.

"Hi, I'm Luke Stone." Luke introduced himself.

"This is Yousef, he's been mugged and hit across the back with a metal bar. I've given him some paracetamol and ibuprofen but he's still struggling with the pain." Jamie explained.

"Ok, I'll write you up something stronger." Luke took his stethoscope from around his neck. "I just need you to take some deep breathes for me." Luke listened to Yousef's breathing. "Ok, I'm a bit concerned you're having some breathing difficulties, I'm going to send you for an x-ray to make sure that you don't have a collapsed lung, then I'm going to observe you for a couple of hours. Who's your GP Yousef?"

"I don't have one." Yousef said.

"And an address?" Luke asked.

"I'm staying with friends, I move around."

"Ok. Where are you from?"

Yousef took a deep breath. "Iran."

Luke turned to Jamie and told him some medication to give to Yousef to help with the pain, Luke turned and left the cubicle. Jamie came over to Luke as he was writing up a prescription for Yousef.

"What's up with him?" Jamie asked.

"I suspect he's an illegal. Overstayed his visa, failed asylum seeker. You see them all the time." Luke said to Jamie.

"What do we do?" Jamie asked.

"We carry on treating them." Luke said handing Jamie the prescription he just wrote.

"Luke!" Fletch called.

Luke went running over to the cubicle that Claire had been moved to.

"She's in a lot of discomfort." Fletch told him.

"Ok, let's get her ready to move to resus."

Joseph pulled back the curtain back.

"Mum?" Joseph panicked.

"Rita, can you take him away please." Luke asked.

Rita did as Luke asked. Luke and Fletch got Claire moving and into resus.

"She's tachycardic." Fletch said.

"She's not got much of a radial pulse. Her potassium levels must have risen after that gas. She's going into ventricular tachycardia" Luke said.

He gave Fletch a list of medication to give Claire in order to try and relieve her symptoms.

"Luke, her GCS is falling." Rita said.

"I've lost her pulse." Fletch said.

"Ok, she's in VF let's get ready to shock her." Luke told everyone.

Fletch started CPR whilst Rita got the pads on Claire.

"Charging…clear…shocking." Luke said.

Claire's body jolt from the shock.

"Ok, we've got an output." Rita said.

"Call ITU and orthopaedics and tell them she needs an emergency fasciotomy." Luke said.

Luke waited until ITU arrived to take away Claire then he went outside for his break. He was sat outside drinking his coffee when some police officers approached him.

"Are you in charge here?" One of them asked him.

"Pretty much." Luke replied.

"Follow me." The officer asked.

Luke followed the police officer inside. Luke went over to the reception desk.

"Can you check for a Ramin Tehrani?" Luke asked the receptionist.

The police officers saw Jamie, leading Yousef into an office. They went running over just Jamie locked the door.

"That's Tehrani." One of them said.

Luke went running over too and started knocking.

"Jamie mate, open the door." Luke pleaded. "Come on just open the door."

Luke noticed there was a crowd beginning to form around him.

"He wants lawyer." Jamie called out.

"The police are here now. He can talk to them; you've made your point." Luke said.

"What is going on here?" He heard someone ask.

Luke turned around it was Zoe.


	3. Chapter 3

"One of the junior nurses, has locked themselves in your office with an asylum seeker." Lily said.

Luke saw Zoe standing looking at him, Jamie Collier had locked himself in Zoe's office with an illegal immigrant that the police were chasing.

"Who is it?" Zoe asked Luke.

"Jamie Collier." Luke replied.

"Where's Charlie?" Zoe asked

"Off." Luke replied.

"Tess?"

"On leave."

"Of course." Zoe sighed.

"She's back tomorrow." Louise told Zoe.

"And we are three nurses down and the agency staff haven't arrived." Luke explained.

"Call Tess and she if she'll come in, tell her I wouldn't normally ask but we are really up against it." Zoe asked Tess. She then banged on her office door. "Jamie, this is Zoe open up."

"Listen Jamie, you really have to come out now please mate." Luke said to him. He turned around and everyone was still watching "Can you all please go back to work."

The crowd dispersed.

"Luke can you send me Fletch please and then go help Ash in resus." Zoe said to him.

"Sure." Luke answered.

Luke walked to resus.

"Can you get the fast scan please?" Ash asked one of the nurses. "Luke can you assess B, I'm worried about a inter abdominal bleed. Can we set up for an RSI then we will be able to send him up to CT."

"SATS are falling, pulse is 140, BP is 97 systolic." Rita told Luke.

"Can we have some ketamine on standby and can we get a probable effusion ready. What's his name?"

"Kenny." His mother said.

"Hi Kenny, I'm Luke I'm just going to have a listen to your chest." Luke said to Kenny.

The phone rang in resus.

"Dr Stone, the paramedics need a doctor at the scene of the crash." Rita said.

Sam put her hand up. "I'll go."

"Ok tell them Sam is on her way." Luke said to Rita.

"Have you worked a shift alongside Lily yet." Ash asked.

"Nope." Luke replied.

"She's got something special." Ash told Luke. "I can't see the cords."

"Can we try a smaller laryngoscope please Rita." Luke said. "Oh and Sam if you see Lily on your way out can you tell her that there has been a change in plans she's working alongside me now."

"Right, I'm off." Sam said.

Luke was performing a fast scan, when Lily came running in.

"Dr Stone, things are escalating outside, Dr Hanna would like you." Lily said.

"Please don't leave him." Kenny's mum begged.

"With the trauma to chest, he may have fractured his ribs which has caused the damage to his lungs." Luke said showing Ash the fast scan.

"BP is 100 over 60, he's desaturating." Rita said to Luke.

"He's got a pneumothorax" Luke said. "Chest drain please."

"BP has dropped to 70 systolic and pulse is 120." Rita said to Luke.

Luke went to Lily and told her Zoe was going to have to manage without her for now, but if she desperately needed him, she will have to come and find him. Luke turned his attention back to Kenny; he prepared the chest drain and get it into place.

"Drain is filling nicely." Luke said.

"SATS are improving at 97% and pulse is better at 100." Rita said.

Just then Noel came in.

"Dr Stone, Zoe is asking for you urgently." Noel said.

"Tell her I'm on my way." Luke said as he washed his hands.

Kenny's mum came up to Luke. "Is he going to be ok?"

"Dr Ashford will explain everything." Luke said as he walked out of resus.

As he walked out of resus, he heard an ear-piercing scream. He went running over to the stairs where he heard the scream coming from, he saw Robyn coming down the stairs covered in what looked like blood. Alice and Luke arrived at the same time.

"Help me! Somebody help me!" Robyn cried out.

"What happened Robyn?" Alice asked wrapping her arm around her shoulders.

"She threw something at me." Robyn cried.

Zoe came running over.

"What happened?" Zoe asked.

"Someone threw something at her." Luke said.

Luke ran up the stairs to see if he could see what had been thrown. On the stairs he found an empty packet of fake blood. Luke came back downstairs.

"It ok Robyn your not hurt, it was fake blood." Luke reassured her.

"Calm down Robyn, it's going to be ok." Alice told her.

Just then Luke could hear someone chanting, then slowly everyone else began to hear it. Luke and Zoe looked at each other and began to walk towards the chanting. When they got to Zoe's office, a lady had chained herself to Zoe's door and placed a banner across the floor.

"What the hell are you doing?" Zoe asked.

But the woman ignored Zoe and carried on chanting. Two police officers tried to release the chains but they weren't having any luck.

"We want a reprieve for gay asylum seekers." The woman said.

"Yeah and this is a hospital we want to treat our patients. Robyn go and get cleaned up." Zoe snapped.

"Come on Robyn." Alice said leading her away.

The officer in charge bent down next to the woman. "Right you need to move, and you need to move now." The lady didn't say anything or move. "You must have a key."

The woman stuck her tongue out and sat on it was the key.

"Right give that…" The officer began.

The woman shut her mouth and swallowed the key.

"Smart one." Luke said to him sarcastically.

"Help!" Jamie called out. "He's having respiratory problems.

Jamie tried to open the door, but he couldn't because the woman's chains prevented the door from opening.

"Open the door!" Jamie shouted.

Zoe banged on the door. "Jamie, talk to me what's going on in there?"

"He's having trouble breathing, he's tachycardic. I don't know what to do." Jamie replied.

"Right we need to get to our nurse and that patient in there now please." Luke said to the officer in charge.

The police officer sent one of his colleagues off to find some bolt cutters whilst Zoe and Luke tried to reassure Jamie that everything was going to be ok. The police were trying to free the woman from the door but they weren't having any luck. Zoe tapped Luke on the shoulder.

"Come here." She whispered.

She was on her phone as they walked around the corner. She put it on speaker.

"Yep." Jamie answered.

"Jamie, there should be a pulse-ox in my medi-bag. Can you see it?" Zoe said to him.

"Hold on." He replied. "Got it."

"Ok good. Put it on him and tell me what the reading is. You can do that, just tell me what his SATS are." Zoe told him.

Zoe handed Luke the phone. "Stay with him."

"Hey Jamie, it's Luke. How are we doing mate."

"SATS 92, and his pulse is around 100." Jamie replied.

"Ok I need you to look at his chest for me. Is it expanding equally on both sides?" Luke asked.

"The right a little less maybe." Jamie replied.

"Ok, I want you to feel his trachea. Use your two middle fingers to see if it is midline…is it in the middle."

"No, it's over to left a bit…I think." Jamie panicked.

"Ok mate. Hold on for me you are doing really well." Luke reassured him.

Luke walked back around the corner. He gestured at Fletch.

"This guy is going to arrest; do you think Jamie is able to handle a tension pneumothorax by himself." Luke asked Fletch.

"Ummm…yeah, if you talk him through it." Fletch replied.

Luke walked back around the corner, Fletch followed.

"Ok Jamie, you are going to do a pneumo decompression. You've seen that done, before haven't you?" Luke explained.

"Yeah." Jamie replied.

"Will you be confident, if I talk you through it." Luke asked. Jamie didn't respond. "Jamie if this works, you'll have saved his life and if it doesn't you haven't lost anything in trying. So, Jamie are you up for it? Jamie?"

"Yeah…yeah. I'll give it a go." Jamie replied shakily.

"Top man Jamie. I'll talk you through it every single step of the way." Luke told him, as he sat down on the steps ready to explain what he was going to do.

Luke allowed Jamie a couple of minutes of to get himself ready before he spoke again.

"Have you got the canula ready?" Luke asked.

"One second...ok I'm ready." Jamie replied.

"Ok you need to insert it into the second intercostal space in the mid-clavicular line." Luke told him.

"I don't know what that is." Jamie said confused.

"Ok, to find it put your finger in the sternal notch, go down two intercostal spaces and move your finger across to the middle on the right-hand side of his chest." Luke explained.

"Got it." Jamie told Luke.

"Now push the canula in just above the rib below, be firm but gentle…Jamie are you ok?"

Jamie still didn't answer.

"I don't care what Zoe says if this doesn't work, we are going to have to smash this glass." Luke whispered to Fletch.

"He'll be fine, he's a good lad." Fletch whispered back.

"Ok I've pushed it in." Jamie said.

"Pull the needle out and you should hear a small whoosh of air." Luke explained.

Jamie didn't reply for ages.

"Jamie can you hear it. Jamie?" Luke knew the pressure he was under if he got this wrong.

"Yeah, I can hear it. I heard a small whoosh of air. His breathing is back to normal already." Jamie said.

"Good man. Talk soon Jamie." Luke hung up the phone. "That gives us about ten minutes, to get in there and put a chest drain in."

Luke came back around the corner and the police had finally managed to break through the woman's chains. Zoe was checking her over, she asked Lily to do something, but Lily wasn't having any of it.

"For once, will you just do as I say." Zoe shouted.

Lily went with Robyn and the protester to check her over.

Zoe and Luke went into Zoe's office to check on Jamie.

"How are we getting on?" Zoe asked.

"Honestly, he's done a pretty good job." Fletch beamed.

"Jamie are you hurt?" Luke asked.

"No I'm fine." He replied.

"Well I want to see you after the shift." Zoe said to him.

The began to wheel Ramin out of Zoe's office to get him treated. Jamie went to follow.

"No, not you." Zoe told Jamie firmly.

They finally reached resus.

"Ok we need 10 mills for 1% lubracane, let's get some morphine and a chest drain set up with a size 28 canula. Let's get 2 lines in please." Luke said as they pushed his bed into the bay.

Luke began to treat Ramin, the police had followed him, and Jamie came running into resus and started talking to police about Ramin. Luke finished up with Ramin and went back outside. He saw the protester that chained herself to do the and trying to leave her bed, but Lily was know where to be seen. He then saw her walking across the ED.

"Would you go and deal with your patient please." Luke called out at her.

Luke followed on to go and deal with the situation.

"What's going on?" Luke asked Lily.

"She wanted to discharge herself, I told her it wasn't a good idea. I guess she thought otherwise." Lily replied.

"She's hypoglycaemic." Robyn said handing him the results of her blood test.

"What's her treatment been so far?" Luke asked.

"Nothing." Lily replied.

Luke looked over her notes. "Zoe asked for a BM test ages ago, what did it say?" Lily said nothing. "What does that mean?"

"I didn't do it." Lily told Luke.

"Why not?"

"Because she was being difficult."

"If you are struggling you can ask for help." Luke told her.

"It's a BM of course I can manage."

"Then why didn't you ask for help?" Luke replied, shutting Lily down.

"Because she doesn't approve of my politics just like my parents." The protester spoke up.

"I don't care about your politics, I disapprove of you because you have the education to fight your beliefs legally but instead you act like a thug." Lily replied.

"Dr Chao, a word please." Luke said gesturing out of the cubicle.

Luke stepped outside.

"What is your problem with following instructions?" Luke asked.

"The situation was very complex and I…."

Luke cut Lily off. "I have no doubt that you have an intelligent mind Dr Chao, that you can think for yourself but in a fast running ED on a day like today I need to trust that senior members of staff can tell junior members of staff what to do and they will do it."

"As you know the nursing staff, were a mess this morning…"

"Enough. This is a team and you will work as part of that team you can't expect someone else to do a BM just because you consider it beneath you, if you had done what your clinical lead had asked of you that girl could have been diagnosed and treated by now. Do you understand?" Luke said.

Lily simply nodded.

"Good." Luke replied before walking away to finish treating the protester.

Later on, Luke was filling in some paperwork, when he saw Lily completing some treatment on the same girl and he saw her make a phone call for her. Once she hung up the phone, she saw the girl smile at Lily.

"How's she getting on?" Ash asked Luke, he had snuck up behind him.

"She's got some potential. Still needs some work." Luke replied.

"Good." Ash said to him.


	4. Chapter 4

As usual at the start of his shift, Luke was walking through when he saw Lily talking to a patient.

"Take two tablets, three times a day." Lily said abruptly.

"Try saying it to me nicely." The patient said.

"Mrs Hayes, I refuse to explain this again." Lily said rudely.

"What do you mean you refuse?" Mrs Hayes said.

Luke watched the conversation play out; Lily's bedside manner still hadn't improved in the time she had spent at the hospital. Rita walked past.

"Oh Rita. Me and Zoe have spoken with Tess and we are going to pair you with Lily today." Luke said to her.

"Why, what I have done?" Rita asked.

"Nothing, but Lily suffers with empathy and you don't." Luke said to her.

Just then a paramedic, Luke hadn't seen before came in and Rita went over to talk to him whilst Luke carried on with what he was doing. He walked towards the nurse's station; he was stood talking to Charlie when Tess called for everyone's attention.

"We've got a serious RTC coming in, bus overturned on the duel carriageway, casualties estimated at three serious and approximately eight walking wounded." Tess told everyone.

"Ok, who's doing what?" Charlie asked.

"You take charge of minors." Tess said to Charlie. She then turned to face Luke. "We prepare resus"

"Yep." Luke agreed.

Luke was outside waiting for the first ambulance to appear around the corner. When it came around the corner Luke went straight over and opened the doors.

"This is Lucy Blackwood, 24. Passenger on the bus, badly displaced right tib and fib. A lot of skin loss, laceration to her face and partially thickness burns." Jeff handed over.

They got her into resus. They moved Lucy across and on to the bed.

"Ok can we unstrap the leg please…let's crossmatch six units and the usual bloods please. Get x-ray down here for a trauma series and can someone call CT please." Luke said to the nurses as he began treating Lucy. Luke walked down to have a look at the leg injury. "Oh that's a real mess, that looks heavily contaminated. She could loss this, we need to give orthopods the heads up. Can we give ten of morphine as well please."

"Yep I'm on it." Fletch said to Luke.

"Ok Lucy, I'm just going to have to have a look at your face." Luke said to her as he pulled back the dressing on her face. "Ok, it's very deep but relatively intact, minimal skin loss. Might still want to get someone to have a look though."

"I'll go make the call." Sam said.

Luke was looking at the results of Lucy's x-ray. When Tom Kent, one of the other ED doctors came over.

"Who does the leg belong to?" He asked.

"Lucy Blackwood, she broke it in the bus crash." Luke replied.

"I'm treating her husband. Did she have any other injuries?" Tom asked.

"Yeah, nasty facial laceration and partial thickness burns but they are all insignificant compared to the tib and fib." Luke explained.

"She got burnt?" Tom wondered.

"Yeah apparently she got trapped in the bus when it caught fire. Why?" Luke said.

"Nothing." Tom said. "I'll see you around."

"See you later mate." Luke said back.

Luke went back to speak to Lucy and explain the severity of her injuries.

"Ok, I've spoken to the surgeons and due to the severity of your injuries you are going to need a whole serious of operations. They are going to try and repairs the damage to your leg and repair the bones with a series of pins, plates and an external frame. You are going to be in hospital for a minimum of eight weeks." Luke explained.

"I thought she had only broken her leg." Lucy's husband, Ben, said.

"Well, if I'm being honest a more accurate description would be a shattered leg there will also be skin grafts and bone grafts." Luke continued.

"Will my leg look the same as before?" Lucy asked.

"I'm afraid not but we do have a fantastic orthopaedics team and plastics team who will do everything for you." Luke finished.

"Will I be able to walk again?" Lucy asked.

"Yes, providing all goes well but you are likely to have a slight limp." Luke told her.

"Go well? Does that mean it might not? Could I lose the leg?" Lucy panicked.

"That is the absolute worst-case scenario and there is a very small risk that the surgery may not work but that is a very, very long way down the line. That being side everyone involved is very optimistic." Luke reassured her.

"So, if it all goes well, I could be better in eight weeks." Lucy said.

"No, you will go home and need to take a further eight weeks off of work." Luke told her.

"Don't worry Lucy, I'll look after you. We will get through this." Ben reassured his wife.

"Can you go home and pack a bag for her. Toiletries, clothes and such things." Luke asked.

"I'll write a list." Lucy told Ben.

Luke left Ben and Lucy to chat. Luke was filling in some paperwork, when a man came in. Luke heard Lucy call out for him.

"Can I help you?" Luke asked the man.

"There's something I need to say." The man said.

"Do you know this man?" Luke asked Lucy.

"No." Lucy said.

"Ok sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Luke said gesturing towards the door.

"Lucy…" The man began.

"How do you know my name?" Lucy cut him off.

"Lucy, I'm your dad." The man said.

"What?" Lucy asked confused.

"I said I'm your dad." The man repeated.

"Is he trying to be funny?" Lucy asked Luke.

"My name is Stuart Eric Riley. You were christened Lucy Jane Riley. Your mums name was Kathleen Everett. Your birthday is 26th November 1989." The man began listing off all these facts about Lucy.

"Please can you get him out of here." Lucy asked Luke.

"Ok, Mr Riley I think you need to understand that Lucy needs some rest." Luke said to Stuart trying to get him to leave.

"Not going very well is it?" Stuart said to Lucy.

"What did you expect, I was three when you walked out on us." Lucy argued.

"I was there for you today though." Stuart told her.

"No, you weren't. When Ben saved my life, you were nowhere in sight." Lucy told him.

Just then Charlie came in.

"Sorry Stuart you really shouldn't be in here." He said to Stuart.

Charlie led Stuart out of resus. Luke went back over to Lucy to make sure she was ok.

About an hour had passed, Luke went back to check on Lucy after she had been moved from resus and into cubicles. But he had also just heard that Ben had been involved in another incident and was on his way back in.

"Lucy, I've just heard some news about Ben. I'm afraid he's been involved in another accident." Luke began.

"What kind of accident?" Lucy asked.

"Now as I understand it, Stuart went around to your home and there was a bit of an argument. I also have to tell you that burns on Stuart's hands indicate that it was him that pulled you from the bus and not Ben." Luke finished.

The someone called out Luke's name. Luke went running over, he grabbed some gloves on the way past.

"Jeff, talk to me." Luke said as he followed.

"This is Ben Blackwood; he has glass embedded into his neck. He's suffering a major bleed; I'd estimate he's lost about a litre of blood at the scene and he may have affected his external jugular. BP 110, he's tachycardic, pulse is 130 and SATS are at 96%. We've given him one litre of saline so far. When we are ready then. Ready, steady, lift." Jeff said.

They moved Ben off of the trolley and onto the bed.

"Thanks Jeff. Tess can we start him on two litres of O+, then cross match eight units. Hiya Ben, it's Dr Stone. I'm going to try and be as gentle as I can be. Ok, can we get the monitoring on as soon as possible please." Luke said.

Luke assessed Ben. "Fletch how are his obs please."

"He's still a bit tachy, his pressure has come up, he's got a better colour and he's passing urine." Fletch told Luke.

"Ok, so far so good. But I don't want to risk removing this glass down here, let's get him up to theatre as soon as possible please." Luke said.

"I'll give the surgeons another call." Tess said, as she left resus.

The rest of the day passed by fairly undramatically. Luke went to the side room where Lucy had been moved to before she was going to be admitted to the ward.

"I thought you should know, Ben's going to be ok. He's made it through the worst of it." Luke told her.

"Thank you, thank you for everything you've done today." Lucy said to Luke.

"Not worries, try and talk to Stuart. See what he has to say." Luke told her.

"Do you really think I should after everything that's happened today." Lucy asked Luke.

"Yeah, I think you should." Luke smiled.

"Ok, I might just do that." Lucy smiled back.

Luke left Lucy to get some rest.

He waited for Alice in the car and then they drove home. When they got in, the first thing that happened was he was hit by something that knocked the wind out of him. He looked down to see what it was. It wasn't something, it was someone. It was Lilia.

"Hello trouble." Luke said as he bent down to hug Lilia.

"Hello." She said back.

Luke took Lilia through to the living room and sat with her. Luke couldn't believe how well she was doing; she had grown up with him for so long he wondered what she thought about their mother. But that didn't matter, she was happy with him and that was all that mattered now.


	5. Chapter 5

"His hyperpyrexia is getting worse. His temperature is at 41 and getting worse." Fletch told Luke.

They were both in resus, Jamie was with them too. They were treating a man who had come in, but they couldn't work out what was wrong with him. All they know what was that if they didn't do anything fast, they would lose him.

"No reaction to the paracetamol." Luke said.

"The fan is working either." Jamie said.

"This could be some kind of sepsis. Let's try him in 1.2 IV of co amoxiclav and can someone check on the ITU bed state please." Luke said to one of the nurses.

"Ok this temperature is now at 42." Fletch said looking at the thermometer.

"I haven't got an output." Jamie told Luke.

"He's in VF." Luke paced ever so slightly. "Ok let's shock him. Charging…clear...shocking."

The man's body jolted due to the electrical shock that he received.

"Ok he's still in VF. Two minutes of CPR, I'll tube him and then we go again." Luke said to the nurses.

Jamie was performing CPR. "Come on John." He muttered.

"You know him?" Luke asked.

"Yeah I met him at Robyn's stepbrother's gig last night." Jamie said as he continued compressions.

Luke went around to John's head and put the tube in to help him breath. He then shocked him again. No change. Jamie resumed compressions.

"How's he doing?" Fletch asked.

"Still in VF. Ok, let's shock him again, can I get some adrenaline please?" Luke asked. A nurse injected the adrenaline. "Hopefully third time lucky. Charging…clear…shocking. Nothing."

Jamie started compressions again. Luke stopped him. "I'm sorry Jamie. Everyone agreed?" Luke looked at the nurses who nodded in agreement. "Time of death 07:22"

Luke left resus and went down to the relatives room. Luke sat on the chair opposite John's parents and explained to them that their son had died. Once he had offered them his support, he left them alone. Jamie was waiting outside.

"What did they say?" Jamie asked.

"The same as all parents do. They can't believe that the son they knew is the same one that is going down to the mortuary. Need a break?" Luke said.

"No." Jamie told him.

"Good. Ah Charlie, how many young people have come in with similar symptoms this morning." Luke asked Charlie when he saw him.

Two in cubicles and one has gone up to ITU, John is the first that we have lost though." Charlie explained.

"Jamie you were there last night, do want to go and speak to them see if there is some sort of connection?" Luke asked him.

"Do you think that they were all on something?" Jamie replied.

"In my experience, when kids start hitting the deck like this, drugs are involved somewhere along the line." Charlie said.

The three of them split off. It wasn't long before another patient was being brought in.

"Hi Lukey, this is Jade Murray. She is 22 years old, possible overdose. GCS 13, BP is 100 and pulse 120." Jeff said to Luke as they walked towards resus.

Luke set about treating Jade. Luke did everything that he could and by they time that he had finished Jade's condition had massively improved. When he went to tell Jade the good news, he saw that Robyn was waiting with her.

"Well, all the bloods including OD screen, BM, ECG and gases all came back negative. Can you tell us what you took Jade?"

"Pills." Jade said.

"So, this is due to drugs?" Luke asked.

"Does Max know you had them?" Robyn asked. Max is Robyn's stepbrother.

"No, he had no idea I even had them." Jade assured Robyn.

"Where did you get them from?" Robyn asked.

"Some guy." Jade said.

"We need more than that, We need to find out what we are dealing with." Luke told Jade.

Just then, Noel came in with someone to see Jade. Jade took one look at him and her body language became more closed and she seemed a lot more frightened.

"Sorry Luke, this is Chris. Max's housemate and Jade's friend." Noel said.

"How's she doing?" Chris asked.

"Jade was just about to tell us who gave her the pills." Luke explained.

"Pills?" Chris asked confused.

"We think there is a bad stash going around. We need to find the source." Luke said.

"Yeah, yeah." Chris agreed. "Where did you get them from?"

"Just some guy in the club." Jade said.

"Can you describe him?" Chris asked.

Jade couldn't answer she started to panic and breathing became more shallow and harder for her to breathe. Luke laid her back down and put an oxygen mask over her face. Robyn led Chris away.

Luke was in the staff room on his break, whilst he was sat there, he felt a pair of arms wrap around him. He knew it was Alice.

"Hey." He said.

"I've missed you." She whispered in his ear before kissing his cheek.

"Missed you too. How are you?" Luke said turning around and rubbing Alice's pregnant stomach.

"I'm fine, if that's what you worried about. You'd be the first person I'd tell if anything was up." Alice smiled at him.

Luke smiled back at her.

Alice stroked his cheek then took hold of his hands. "It's sweet when you worry."

"How do you know I was worried?" Luke asked.

"Your palms go all sweaty." Alice laughed.

"Maybe I'm just really warm." Luke laughed back.

"Luke, I've been with you for six years now and we've been married for almost four of them. I think I know when your worried." Alice told him.

"Ok, ok. You win." Luke said kissing Alice's head.

Alice smiled proudly as she sat down next to Luke. "How are you?"

"Concerned. There's a batch of bad drugs going around. I don't know what it is but kids are dropping like flies and I don't know what to do about it. We've already lost one this morning and we've had another three. I can't imagine what it would be like if I looked down on that trolley and it was Maisie came in."

Alice took hold of his hand. "The chances of that happening are so slim because our girl has got her head screwed on. And she knows we'd go mental if she ever did that, even if she is technically old enough to make her own choices now." Alice laughed. "Look you'll think of something, you always do."

Alice smiled at Luke. Luke smiled back. They just looked at each other for a while not saying anything. When suddenly they heard someone opening the door and they both went back to what they were doing.

"See you later." Luke said as he kissed Alice on the cheek and left the staff room.

Luke walked out the door and almost immediately Dixie and Iain came bursting in with a patient. Luke leant into the staff room.

"Want to come with?" Luke asked Alice.

"Yes, I do." Alice said jumping up.

Luke and Alice walked over to Dixie. They were pushing Chloe in, following on behind them was what Luke assumed was the patient's partner.

"This is Chloe Smith, 24-year-old and 36 weeks pregnant. She was a restrained front seat passenger in an RTC. She's not been KO'd; she's developed a lower abdomen pain and a PV bleed. GCS has been 15 throughout, pulse is 95, BP is 125 systolic and SATS are 96%." Dixie explained to Luke. "Ok Chloe, I need you to shuffle over on to the bed for me."

"Why am I bleeding?" Chloe asked as she moved across.

"Hi Chloe, I'm Dr. Stone."

Just then Charlie came in and he went over to Chloe's partner.

"Hi, you must be Gavin. I've been asked to have a look at that head wound of yours." Charlie explained.

"I'd rather just stay here and be with my baby." Gavin replied rudely.

"I'm afraid I do need to assess that wound." Charlie insisted.

"I'm fine, I don't need to be assessed." Gavin shouted.

Iain went over to intervene.

"I've told you anyone whose been involved in an RTC needs to be assessed and discharge on arrival to hospital." Iain explained to Gavin again.

"Look I'm telling you I'm fine." Gavin continued to argue.

Luke decided it was time to intervene. "Right, you need to get that cleaned up before you come near your girlfriend and I'm someone who has the power to make that possible."

Gavin huffed.

"Thank you." Luke said to him.

"He also needs to call his wife." Iain told Charlie.

"Right, I thought you said that this was your baby?" Charlie asked.

"It is. Chloe's sister is my wife. Chloe is our surrogate because my wife can't have children." Gavin said before he followed Charlie out.

"So, you're a surrogate?" Luke asked.

"Yep, and I want my body back." Chloe chuckled slightly.

Luke checked Chloe's obs. "Chloe, your pulse rate is slightly increased. Have you had any complications before the crash?"

"My blood pressure has been slightly high; the clinic has been fussing over it. I was on my way to an appointment when the crash happened." Chloe told Luke.

"Ok. She's got a bit of tachycardia because of the blood pressure. Can you give obs and gynae a call to come down here. Let's get some bloods to be sent off and then hang up a litre of saline." Luke to Alice.

Alice nodded.

"Do you think, I'm going to have this baby soon?" Chloe asked Luke.

"Don't worry, if it is coming, we will be ready for it." Luke reassured her.

Luke left Chloe to get some rest. As he left resus, he saw Alice out down the phone and let out a deep sigh.

"Trouble?" Luke asked.

"Obs consult is stuck in theatre with a tricky twin birth." Alice said.

"Right, I'll put her in HDC for now. Is Gavin available?"

Mac came past pushing Chloe.

"No I don't want him there. Not without my sister." Chloe said to Luke.

"He is the baby's father." Luke told her.

"Not without my sister." Chloe shouted back as Luke walked past.

Luke put his arm around Alice. They stood there for a second before they went back to check on Chloe.

Chloe had got herself on to the bed by the time Luke and Alice reached her. They started doing some observations. When they heard Chloe gasp.

"Oh no." Chloe panicked. "What's happening?"

Alice pulled back Chloe's sheet.

"Ok your waters have broken." Alice told her.

"Did you take antenatal classes?" Luke asked.

"I missed a couple…actually I missed most of them." Chloe told Luke.

"Ok, all you need to worry about is when you get a proper contraction you tell us." Alice said to her.

"How will I know what that feels like?" Chloe asked her.

"You'll know." Alice told her.

Just then Chloe wretched in pain.

"There you go." Alice said to her.

"Just breath through it." Luke reassured her.

Alice handed Chloe the gas and air whilst Luke examined her.

"She's almost fully dilated already." Luke said to Alice.

"Have we got time to get her to the delivery suite?" Alice asked.

"I don't think so. She's still bleeding quite heavily. Can you get me the ultrasound," Just as Alice walked past, Luke pulled her in and whispered "Get Tess and tell her this baby is coming now." Alice nodded.

Luke got Chloe more comfortable whilst they waited for Tess. It wasn't long before Tess came in with a lady that Luke assumed was Chloe's sister.

"This is Rebecca, Chloe's sister." Tess said.

"Hi." Luke said to her. "Tess she is nine's centimetres dilated already."

"Can someone bring up me to speed. How much time have we got?" Rebecca asked.

"The rate it's been going so far. I won't be long at all." Luke told her.

"Pulse is rising." Tess told Luke.

"Ok Chloe breath through those contractions just like we said." Luke told Chloe.

"I'm sorry for this." Rebecca told her sister.

"It's all ok. I'm doing it for you." Chloe smiled.

Just then Gavin came in. The three of them spoke amongst themselves.

"Ok Alice, page the obs team I need them here now." Luke asked.

"Why is something wrong?" Gavin asked Luke.

"I'm just getting them in case baby gets compromised." Luke explained.

"Compromised how?" Rebecca asked.

"It's just a precaution. Let's worry about Chloe for now." Luke told her.

"This isn't how I pictured this. It was supposed to be easy." Chloe said through her pain.

"Luke." Tess called Luke to look at the ultrasound.

"Right we need to get this baby out now." Luke told the team.

"What's up?" Rebecca asked.

"Chloe has suffered a placental bleed which is causing excessive bleeding." Luke explained.

"That sounds bad. Is it serious?" Gavin said.

"The placenta provides the baby with oxygen whilst its in the womb. If the placenta is damaged it could cause some damage." Tess told the family.

Luke listened for the baby's heartbeat. "It's low. Ok Chloe, I'm just going to check again. Ok the head is visible, that's a good sign."

"Ok Chloe, I need you to push now." Tess told her.

Luke called Tess to one side. "Are you going to be ok with this?"

"I will be once the baby is out safely." Tess told Luke.

Tess went back over to Chloe and began to tell her what she needed to do to make this as easy as possible.

"What's happening?" Chloe asked.

"Ok the umbilical cord is just wrapped around the baby's neck. Almost there." Luke said.

"One last push." Tess told her.

Chloe gave one last push and then the baby was born and started to cry. "It's a boy." Luke grinned.

Luke cut the cord. But then the baby boy began to struggle. Alice and Tess took him to try and help him breath. After a couple of tense minutes, the baby started to cry again. Luke listened to his heartbeat.

"Strong pulse." He reassured everyone.

"Is he alright?" Rebecca asked.

"We are just going to send him up to maternity just because of the complications." Luke explained.

"Are you saying he's got problems?" Rebecca asked.

"No, I'm saying I want to make sure he's alright." Luke told them.

"What's the worst-case scenario then?" Gavin asked.

"Because we know the cord was wrapped around his neck for a period of time during the delivery and because of the placental damage it could have been longer. So, there is just a slight risk he could have suffered what is known as cerebral hypoxia." Luke explained.

"What's that?" Gavin asked. "Come on then."

"Lack of oxygen can lead to brain damage." Luke told them.

"He's got brain damage." Rebecca said.

"No, there's no certainty until we've had him tested." Luke assured her.

"I knew something like this would happen." Gavin said under his breath.

"What do you mean by that?" Rebecca asked.

"Her," Gavin had pointed at Chloe. "She was never fully committed to this baby."

"You can't blame Chloe for this." Rebecca told him.

"Has she been looking after herself? No, she's been slobbing around not doing anything whilst I've had to put up with this. For years she's been saying I'm not good enough for you and now she's finally messed it all up." Gavin shouted.

"Woah, none of this is Chloe's fault. The placental damage only happened because of the crash." Luke told Gavin.

"And the crash because she was having a go at me again." Gavin said.

"This is not the time or the place." Luke said firmly.

"I can't believe we've come so far to end with…" Gavin couldn't finish his sentence.

"With a what?" Rebecca asked him. "Say it."

Gavin said nothing and just walked out.

"I'm going to find out whether maternity are on their way." Luke said.

He left HDC but as soon as the door shut behind him. Jamie came racing up to him.

"It's Jade, she's collapsed in the toilets." Jamie said whilst trying to catch his breath.

"Show me." Luke said.

They raced up to the toilets. When they got there, Robyn had laid Jade on her side.

"She's breathing but her pulse is racing." She said to Luke.

"Has she banged her head?" Luke asked.

"I don't think so." Robyn replied.

Luke shined his torch in Jade's eyes. "Her pupils have dilated, let's get her on a trolley and down to resus as quickly as possible."

Jamie brought in a trolley with one of the porters. Luke lifted Jade up on to the trolley and got her moving down to resus.

"Ok she's going to need an ECG, check up BM and let's get a CT." Luke said to one of the nurses.

"She feels pyrexial." Robyn told Luke.

"What is going on with these kids. What are they taking?" Luke muttered.

"She didn't take anything." Max, Robyn's brother, said.

"She admitted to taking pills last night, she just didn't say who she got them off." Robyn told Max.

Suddenly Jade started to fit. Max ran out. Once they got her stable, Robyn check her obs.

"Her pulse is sky high and her temperature is topping 40." Robyn told Luke.

Just then Max came running back in.

"She's taken pyramids." Max said.

"Toxicology has listened them as double the strength of normal ecstasy. A girl died from them last year." Jamie told Luke.

"Ok this changes everything." Luke said.

"Temperature is 42." Robyn updated Luke.

Luke gave the nurses some instructions on what to give Jade. Then she started to fit again. Once they got her stable again they got ready to take to ITU. Luke went to walk out of resus but before he did, he stopped to speak to Max.

"As well as getting the rest of the stash off of the street, you saved quite a few lives today." Luke smiled, he then left resus.

He went and found Alice in the staff room.

"How was the baby?" Luke asked her.

"He went it to respiratory failure, but we got him stabilised and up to the NICU. He's going to be ok." Alice said to Luke, as she took his hands. "You've gone all sweaty again."

"It was just the thought of that happening to our babies or something happening to you." Luke told her.

Alice kissed Luke. "It'll be ok."

"Yeah, of course it will." Luke smiled.


	6. Chapter 6

"Have you told Tess about your scan today?" Luke asked as he pulled his shoes on whilst sat on the stairs.

"Yes." Alice half sighed; half laughed as she appeared behind him and kissed the top of his head on her way past.

Luke was worrying more and more as the pregnancy progressed. But this was Luke all over. He was just a worrier; he always had been. Despite having raised Lillia and Maisie just fine he was still incredibly worried as he had never raised a baby before, let alone two at the same time.

"Ready?" Alice asked as she appeared in the doorway of the living room.

"Yep." Luke replied standing up and picking up his keys.

He looked at the picture of his family on the wall. The house felt just a little bit emptier now that Maisie had gone back to university in London. Luke unlocked the door and off the couple drove to the hospital.

As soon as they walked through the door. Charlie came rushing over.

"Ah good. You've arrived just in time. We have at least 30 inhalation victims' minutes out." Charlie explained.

"What have they inhaled?" Luke said as he handed his coat and bag to Noel to look after seeing as he didn't have time to go to the staff room.

"Not sure yet. Sounds like some kind of chemical spill though." Charlie continued as they walked further into the ED ready for the ambulance bay doors to open.

Right on cue, the doors burst open and in came Dixie and Jeff with a trolley.

"Anhydrous ammonia victims, at least 30 more in coming." Jeff said to Luke.

"Ok straight through to resus please." Luke told Jeff.

Just like that the patients didn't stop coming. They were being brought in by paramedics as well as the fire fighters who had attended the scene. Charlie and Luke stood their directing the patients as more and more coming in. Luke turned to Mac as he walked past.

"Round up as many oxygen tanks as you can find." Luke said to Mac.

"Of course." Mac replied.

Just then Ash came running over.

"What have we got?" He asked.

"Industrial ammonia leak. We have got at least 30 coming in." Luke told him.

"We are already full to bursting as well with other patients." Charlie continued.

"Ok plan. Charlie find Lily, tell her to start discharging as many patients as possible to start freeing up some space. Ash, start sorting patients from worst to they aren't going to die today." Luke told them both.

They both agreed with Luke and they all sprang into action. Luke went back towards reception, which was full of patients, many of which were already moaning at the Noel who was doing his best to try and contain the situation. Luke stood up on a chair and blew the whistle that he had on his key chain. Everyone went quiet and looked at him.

"Ok, I understand that you are feeling unwell. But we have just had a very major incident come in but we are going to your patience to help understand the waiting times might be slightly longer than usual today. If you are here because of the ammonia leak, you need to make your way over to this side of the reception. If you are here because of another minor injury that isn't life threatening. I will need you to move over to the side…."

Luke was interrupted by a man on the other side of the reception who had climbed up onto a chair as well.

"Sir I'm going to need you to step down from there…" Luke began.

"If you think that the Ebola outbreak is bad. Then you haven't seen nothing yet…" The man began. He reached into his hand and pulled out what looked like a grenade. "I am the apocalypse."

The man the pulled the pin out of the grenade held it up in the air. People started to scream. Just then Luke felt someone push him out of the way, he crashed to the floor and when he looked up, he saw his friend, Matt Casey, from the fire service running towards the man. Casey talked him off of this chair then grenade went flying out of the man's hand, but it exploded mid-air. Luke covered his face, once initial impact from the explosion settled, he got up. He looked around. Reception had been ripped apart. Patients were coughing and screaming still.

"Casey? Casey what the hell happened?" A voice was calling out, but it sounded like it was coming from a radio. The Luke realised he knew the voice. It was Casey' station officer, Stephen Lloyd.

Luke stood up and checked himself over, he hadn't been injured. He saw Noel had stood up as well. He had been pretty well shielded by his desk.

"Noel, are you ok?" Luke asked as he went over to check on his friend.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Noel replied.

"What did he say? The bomber." Another voice said. Luke looked around; it was Jac. She was also heavily pregnant. Her and Alice were both due around the same time.

"Jac? What are you doing down here? Are you ok?" Luke said rushing over.

"I'm fine. I was down here for a CT consult. I was the other side of the doors went it went off." She told him, in her usual dismissive tone. "Now what did he say?"

"Something about it being worse than Ebola." Noel said to her.

Jac and Luke looked at each other and gasped at the same time when they realised.

"We need to lock down the ED. Nobody can leave." Luke told Noel.

Noel went rushing over to doors to prevent people from leaving. Luke bent down and found the Casey's radio was at his feet, but there was no sign of Casey himself. Stephen was still asking for an update on the situation.

"Stephen, it's Luke Stone here. A man has just blown himself up, he said that it could be worse than Ebola. We need everyone brought back in that could be infected and Steve, Casey tackled the guy to floor just as the explosion happened. I don't know where he is."

Luke looked at the door, he could see that people were trying to push past Noel and the security guards. Luke ran over to help.

"Guys, you can't leave. This is very serious…. ma'am I know your scared, I am too but we need to stay here otherwise you'll infect the whole city."

Luke started to look around for Casey, but he couldn't see him anywhere. Some of the other firefighters came over to help on the doors as they had heard over their radios that nobody could leave. He found Mac tackling a small fire with a fire extinguisher. Luke went over.

"Hey, leave that for the professionals. I need you to gather supplies for me because you know this place better than the fire boys." Luke reassured him.

"Right, you're right Lukey." Mac half-heartedly smiled at him.

Jeff and Dixie were still in the ED along with some other paramedics performing primary surveys on patients.

Just then Ash came rushing back over.

"Luke are you ok? Alice rang me saying you weren't answering your phone." He asked.

Luke looked at his phone he had five missed called on it from Alice. He felt guilt punch him in the stomach.

"I'm fine," He replied. "Where's Alice? Is she ok?"

Luke frantically started looking for her. Ash took him by the shoulders.

"She's fine, I sent her up to the pharmacy before the explosion happened, she was nowhere near her. I've told her not to come back until it's safe because we don't know what we are dealing with and she's pregnant." Ash assured him.

"Thank you. Thank you." Luke smiled. "Ash, we need to set up a decontamination area, we need to open up the staff showers and patient showers and start washing people down."

"Hey Luke! Its Casey!" Dixie shouted across to him.

Luke and Ash went running over.

"He's got a weak pulse, trauma to his back and chest. Looks like some shrapnel from the grenade." Dixie told him.

"Grab a trolley. I need to tell Stephen whats going on." Luke said.

Luke stood back up and radioed Stephen to him what had happened to Casey. Ash had gone with Casey to start his treatment.

"Chief, it's Stone. Casey has taken a pretty bad hit from the explosion; he's got trauma to his back and he's got some embedded shrapnel from the grenade. It's looking not great; he should have been black tagged straight away but I'm not letting that happen." Luke told Stephen over the radio.

"Ok," Then there was a pause and a deep sigh. "Keep me in the loop."

"Will do Chief. You have my word." Luke promised.

Just then he heard someone coughing, he looked around and it was Charlie propped up against the nurse's station. Luke went over to him, he got his torch and shined it in Charlie's eyes.

"Tell me your name?" Luke asked.

"What? You know my name Luke we've known each other 6 years." Charlie said to Luke.

"I know that I know your name. I need to make sure you know your name." Luke told him.

"I'm Charlie." Charlie replied.

"Good. It's also good you know my name and how long we've known each other. But I do think you have a mild concussion. Do you want to just sit there until I can check..."?

Charlie cut Luke off. "I'm Charlie Fairhead. Born 26th January 1954. I married my life Barbara in 1998 and we have one son together, Louis, who was born in 1996. Me and Baz got divorced in 2001. Do you want me to carry on?"

Luke chuckled. "No, we're good."

"Luke." A voice called out. It was Jamie.

Luke rushed over; he was with a patient who was slumped against a wall.

"He's airways clear. His airway and circulation are both good...oh and his name is Roger." Jamie told Luke.

"Hi Roger, can you hear me ok?" Luke asked.

"Yes." Roger wheezed.

Both Luke and Jamie looked down at his chest. They found the reason why Roger was struggling to breath.

"Is ummm...that his rib?" Jamie asked.

"No, that is... that's someone's ulna," Luke looked around the ED for a body, then he found one. He pointed at it. "His to be exact. Jamie I'm going to need some tape, bandages, gauze and a cast saw and let's get some IV antibiotics in whilst we are at too please."

"On it." Jamie said. He stood up and went get Luke what he needed.

"A saw? Doctor I am going to be ok?" Roger asked.

"Roger, I need you to stay perfectly still that way you will be just fine." Luke explained.

"Doctor I want you to explain exactly what is going on, don't sugar coat it for me Doc just tell me straight." Roger asked.

"Ok Roger. I am not going to remove the bone right now." Luke told him.

"Why not?" Roger demanded.

Just then Jamie came back. "I got it all, I also got 5 milligrams of midazolam as well to help with pain."

"Thanks Jamie. Roger would you like a sedative to help make you feel more comfortable?" Luke offered.

"No. I just want this damn thing taken out of my chest." Roger retorted.

"Roger, I am going to level with you because believe or not that bone is keeping you alive at the moment, if I remove it that's when you'll be in trouble. So I'm going to cut the bone down then wrap it and secure it to prevent it from doing any damage to your lung. I'll remove it just as soon as I can get you into theatre, ok? Now do you want something to make you feel more comfortable?" Luke was honest with Roger just as he asked. That's all some people need in a crisis like this, some honesty.

"No thanks doc. You just do your job." Roger smiled.

"Jamie, I'm going to need you to hold the bone perfectly still but keep Roger distracted for me." Luke whispered.

Jamie nodded. He bent down and spoke to Roger. When then time was right, Luke sawed through the bone sticking out of Roger's chest. Roger whimpered a lot, but Luke had sawed through the bone in a matter of seconds.

"Well done Roger, really well done." Luke smiled as he handed Jamie the bone fragment to dispose of.

"Thank you, doctor." Roger smiled back.

Luke lent Roger forward so he could wrap the remaining bone to prevent it from causing any further damage.

"I'll be back soon but Jamie here will stay right with you ok. He's one of our best nurses so if you need anything just speak to him." Luke told Roger.

Luke stood up and went to find where he was needed next. As he walked past reception, he saw what was left of the guy that caused this mess. Luke turned to one of the firefighters that had been caught in the ED when the grenade exploded.

"Hey, can you chuck a sheet over him, please. People don't want to be reminded of who caused all this mess." Luke said to the firefighter.

"Sure."

Luke carried on walking when he saw one of the other firefighters he recognized, stood on a trolley with his head in the ceiling. His head reappeared just as Luke walked past.

"Kidd what's the matter?" Luke asked.

"I don't want to add to your problems, but the whole electrical system is burning up there, in five minutes we won't be able to breath with amount of smoke that is going to fill this room." Kidd told Luke.

"Ok. I've had worse odds." Luke said trying to remain calm. "Can you manage it?"

"No, we've just used the last of the extinguishers." Kidd said.

"Of course. Right you just do what you can, I need to go treat some more people." Luke said.

Luke went around helping people as best he could, but they only went so far. Once they did all the could in the ED, they just had to play the waiting game. Luke heard that Kidd had managed to put the fire out which was one less problem that Luke had to worry about, he just had to worry about all the patients that needed help from other departments and the fact that he may have been exposed to a deadly disease which may kill him and he never gets to know his children.

Luke walk was just walking circles around the ED not knowing where he would be much use.

"Oi doctor!" A voice called out.

"Yes sir?" Luke turned to face the man.

"What's the situation?" He demanded.

"Everyone is doing the best that they can." Luke said calmly.

"What does the even mean anymore? No is telling us a thing." The man shouted at Luke.

Luke needed to stop this before the situation got out of hand.

"Hey, sit down and be quiet because I tell you what if you kick off, everyone else will and then we'll all be trapped for even longer because we'll have a riot on our hands that I'll have to subdue before I let anyone in or out of this ED. Do you understand?" Luke said sternly to the man.

The man just stared at Luke, but Luke wasn't going to back down. His time in the army had taught him never to back down in a situation like this. Luke didn't know how long the two of them had been staring at each other but eventually he went to sit down.

Luke turned away from the man but almost as soon as he did, he saw the reflection of the man coming towards him with a piece of debris in one of the computer screens. Luke managed to dodge out of the way before he was hit.

"I am walking out of here right now!" The man shouted.

"You really don't want to try that. I've been trained be the British Army and I will have down on the floor before you know it." Luke said.

The man raised the debris he had picked up as a weapon and before he could take his first step, Jamie had jumped at him and injected him with a needle in his arm. Luke grabbed hold of the man and pulled him down.

"Good job Roger didn't want that midazolam." Jamie chuckled.

"Yeah. Thanks Jamie." Luke smiled.

Ash came walking over just as Luke and Jamie stood up. He must have finished treating Casey.

"How is he?" Luke asked.

"He's stable. He's got a good chance." Ash reassured him.

Just then Zoe phoned Luke.

"You picked the wrong day to have off." Luke said to her.

"I'm outside but they won't let me come in. Are you ok? How is everyone holding up?" Zoe asked.

"We are doing ok all things considered, but Zoe I'm terrified that guy could have been some sort of biological weapon from what I'm hearing... Have you heard how much longer we are going to be in here? Eventually patients are going to start dropping like flies or I'm going to have a riot on my hands." Luke said to her.

"I've got no idea Luke, but they are working on finding out what it is as quickly as they can."

Ok...oh and can you tell Stephen that Casey is stable and he's got a good chance of full recovery."

"Sure thing." Zoe said.

"Zoe, can you do me a favour?" Luke asked.

"Sure." She replied.

"Find Alice and tell her that I love her and if I don't make it out of here..." Luke started to cry.

"Luke listen to me. You are going to get of her, and you'll be able to tell her that yourself." Zoe reassured him. "I've got to go the police need to speak with me. I'll phone you as soon as I know anything else."

"Thanks Zoe. Speak soon."

"Speak soon Luke." Zoe replied.

Luke hung up the phone and took a deep breath. He looked up and saw the chief of pathology come out of the cubicle that she had been working in to determine with that all been infected with a killer disease.

"And?" Luke asked.

Everyone in the ED stopped and looked to her.

She sighed, then broke out into a smile. "Not contagious. He tested positive for Influenza A but whatever he tried to kill us with hadn't incubated and died with him."

Everyone and started to applaud. Luke put his head in his hands and sunk to the floor. He felt someone put an arm around him, he looked up, it was Jac. He pulled her into a tight hug. Luke took a deep breath and stood back up. He turned to Noel.

"Open up the ED." Luke told him.

"With pleasure." Noel smiled.

Luke bent over and picked up Casey's radio.

"Chief, its stone. We're got the all clear, not contagious. We're reopening the ED." Luke said.

"Fantastic." Stephen voice crackled back down the radio.

Luke went back over to Roger with Jamie.

"Jamie is going to take you upstairs to get that thing pulled out of you and then you can be on your way home." Luke told Roger.

"Thank you, both of you." Roger said quietly.

"It's not a problem." Luke reassured him.

Luke went back into the staff room after he had helped all the patients as best as he could. He picked up his bag and Alice's belongings too. He went outside, he felt the sun on his face and then he looked across the carpark and saw Alice waiting for him. He ran over and pulled her into a hug.

"I love you." Luke whispered.

"I love you too." She whispered back.


	7. Chapter 7

The doors of the ambulance bay opened, Iain was coming with Dixie and a patient.

"Robyn!" Luke called out.

Robyn jogged over to Luke ready to receive the hand over with him.

"This is Amy Harman, 24. Campervan has run over her right leg, query lower leg fracture. GCS 15, pulse 85, BP 125 systolic, SATS 96% and she has had Entonox and five milligrams of morphine." Iain said to Luke they wheeled Amy through to cubicles.

They slid Amy across onto a bed. Luke removed the vacuum splint and started to assess her leg.

"Ok Amy do you have any allergies that I need to be aware of?" Luke asked.

"Nope. So, doc what are the chances of me wearing my dancing shoes tonight?" Amy replied.

"We're going to need to need x-rays of both of your lower legs but I'm sure you'll have your dancing shoes on again in no time. I'll be back soon." Luke smiled.

Luke walked through the ED, there was still some construction repairs going around them after last week, when someone attempted to infect everyone in the ED with a highly infectious disease but failed. The attack had left Luke shaken but he couldn't let anyone know especially Alice.

Luke went into his office and sat behind the desk, he stared at the screen for a while. He had to complete an incident report about the attack last week. He had been putting it for days, but Zoe needed it by the end of the day. Just as Luke was about to start working there was a gentle knock at the door.

"Come." Luke called out.

The door opened; it was Alice.

"Are you ok?" She asked.

"Fine." He replied.

"I managed to another appointment today with Emma." Alice said.

"Emma?" Luke no idea who Alice was talking about.

"Emma Todd, the new obs and gyne consultant. As we couldn't go to the scan last week because of obvious reasons, she managed to squeeze it in for us today at midday. I've already cleared it with Tess…it would be great if you could be there Luke." Alice smiled.

"Yeah, of course I will. I wouldn't miss it for the world." Luke smiled back.

"Good," Alice went to leave the office, but she turned back around before she left. "Are you sure your ok? You seem a bit distracted."

"It's just I need to complete this report about last week. It's just something I'd rather not remember in a hurry." Luke sighed.

Alice shut the door and sat in front of Luke.

"That really shook you up last week, didn't it?" Alice said taking hold of her husband's hands.

"I thought I was never going to see you again, I thought it would never see our babies grow up. I grew up without parents really and wouldn't want that for them because it is not nice." Luke said.

"But you are here and you will get to see them both grow up and shower them with love." Alice smiled.

"You always know the right things to say." Luke said leaning across the desk to kiss his wife.

There was a sudden knock at the door, Luke and Alice pulled apart quickly. Robyn opened the door.

"Sorry, I hope I wasn't interrupting." Robyn apologised.

"No not all," Alice said standing up and walking out. "Remember midday."

Alice left the office. Robyn came over to Luke and handed him the tablet she was carrying.

"It's Amy's x-ray results, I just thought you might want to see them." Robyn said.

"Oh right, thank you." Luke said studying the screen. "Come on then, let's go and give her the verdict.

Luke stood up and left the office with Robyn following.

"What's at midday? If you don't mind me asking, I just wouldn't want you forgetting that's all." Robyn asked.

Robyn was kind like that, she looked out for people and that's what Luke liked about her most and she was a good nurse. He enjoyed working with her.

"Oh, it's just Alice has a scan today. We were meant to go last week but obviously couldn't, so she managed to get it rearranged for today." Luke smiled.

"You must be so excited." Robyn said.

"You wouldn't believe it." Luke grinned.

They reached Amy's cubicle and Luke drew back the curtain.

"Ok Amy, I have received the results of your x-ray and you have what is known as a non-displaced fracture of your fibula, your lower leg. Its not serious and you won't be needing surgery, but we will have to put it in plaster. So, I don't think you'll be doing any dancing any time soon unfortunately." Luke explained.

"How long before I will be able to dance?" Amy asked.

"About 6 weeks, which considering your leg got run over isn't as bad as it could have been. But after this the leg should have recovered nicely so you'll be able to dance as much as you like after that." Luke reassured her.

"Thanks." Amy half-heartedly smiled, clearly disappointed she won't be able to dance for a while.

"I'll leave you with Robyn to sort out getting your leg put in plaster and trust me there is no one else I'd rather have put my leg in plaster, she's one of the best nurses we've got." Luke said.

Luke looked to Robyn , she was smiling but was half shocked she clearly hadn't expected him to say that.

Luke was sat in his office, once again staring at his screen and not doing the work that he was supposed to be doing when the phone rang.

"Hello Dr Stone." Luke said as he answered the phone.

"Hi Luke its Robyn, sorry to bother you again, but Amy's boyfriend has been involved in a fight and she's asked if you can come and have a look for her." Robyn explained.

"Yeah of course I can, I'm only upstairs in my office, tell her I'm on my way. Get him triaged and give me five minutes just to get down from my office." Luke said.

"Thanks Luke. See you in a minute." Robyn said.

Luke put the phone and grabbed his stethoscope off the desk and went back down to the ED.

When he got down to the ED, he found Amy's boyfriend, Riley, in minors.

"Hi Riley, we met earlier with Amy. Robyn here tells me you've been in a fight?" Luke said.

"Yeah." Riley replied through the pain.

"Ok, I'm just going to have a feel of your neck and shoulders to make sure you haven't done any damage." Luke said as he rubbed his hands together to warm the up. "I just want you to tell me where it hurts."

"My knee, my head, my neck." Riley grunted as Luke felt the back of his neck.

"Ok. I just want you to stay nice and still for me, don't try and move your head or neck for me I'll hold it nice and still," Luke held Riley's head so he couldn't make any sudden movements. "Robyn could you go and grab me a rigid collar."

"Sure." Robyn grabbed the collar and placed it in front of Luke and then held on Riley's head.

Luke placed the collar around Riley's neck.

"Alright Riley, I'm just going to hold your head whilst Robyn helps you lie down." Luke explained.

Luke and Robyn gently lay Riley back.

"It's not broken is it?" Someone said behind Luke.

It was Alex, Amy's brother.

"I don't know yet and won't know until I've got the x-ray results, but it's a precaution if anyone complains about neck pains." Luke said reassuringly. "I'm just going to book your x-ray; I won't be long."

The queue for x-ray was surprisingly short, so Alex was booked in and Luke had the results back within half an hour.

"No brakes and no other damage, so I'm happy to remove your collar and sit you back up."

Luke help Alex back up and removed the collar from around his neck. He then did a couple of quick tests to ensure that everything was ok.

"Well I'm happy to discharge you." Luke told Alex. "I'll sort out getting your papers ready."

Luke went over to the nurse's station and put Alex's notes on the side. He then turned to face Robyn.

"Can you sort getting his discharge papers ready for me please? I'm just going to check on Amy and make sure she is comfortable."

"Umm, have you seen the time?" Robyn said.

Luke looked at the clock it was quarter to twelve. He was supposed to be meeting Alice in fifteen minutes.

"Ok, no I'm not. I am now going to run. Faster than I have ever run." Luke said gathering his things.

"Good luck." Robyn smiled.

"Thank you, I'll be back as quick as I can." Luke told her.

"Don't rush back though." Robyn said.

Luke ran out of ED and through the hospital as he raced to maternity. He wasn't going to be late. He would let Alice down like that and he wouldn't let his babies down like that. Luke didn't stop running. He made it to maternity, just in time.

When he got there, he sat down next to Alice, who gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"I didn't think you were going to make it for a second." Alice smiled, taking hold of his hand.

"For a second, neither did I." Luke said whilst trying to catch his breath back.

"Are you sure you were a soldier?" Alice laughed.

"I haven't run like that, since I was a solider now leave me alone." Luke said still taking really deep breaths.

Just then a lady stepped out of one of the treatment rooms and called out Alice's name. Luke and Alice both looked at each other and smiled, they stood up and followed the lady into the room. Alice sat on the bed whilst Luke sat on the chair next to it. Luke tightly squeezed Alice's hand.

"Hi, I'm Dr Todd but you can call me Emma." The lady said introducing herself. "Well then you've already waited long enough to see this let's not hang around any longer. Alice if you would just roll your top up for me."

Alice did just as she was asked. Underneath was a perfect bump, considering she was pregnant with twins the bump was quite petit but it wasn't uncommon for women to sometimes have smaller bumps so he wasn't too worried much.

"This will be a little bit cold on your stomach but you probably know that." Emma laughed.

Luke and Alice smiled back. Emma squeezed some gel on Alice's stomach and then began to moved the probe across her stomach. Then they both saw and heard the best thing in the world.

"There we go two healthy heartbeats." Emma said with a smile.

Luke stared at the picture, there were his children. He had not never felt so happy in all his life. He felt his eyes go wet and a tear trickle down his face. He looked at Alice who wiped the tear off his cheek. She smiled at him.

"You were always the softer one." She whispered.

"This time last week, I didn't think I'd get to see this." He whispered back.

They both went back to looking at the screen.

"Right I'll get you some pictures." Emma said. "You sort yourselves out and I'll find you in reception."

Alice rolled her top back down, the couple went to wait in reception for Emma to bring them their pictures. Once they got them they headed back down to the ED.

"I guess we should think about godparents?" Alice said.

"Yeah. Well I was thinking about this..." Luke began.

"Yeah?" Alice smiled.

"I have. Well, I want your opinion but I guess the fairest way that we do it is if we choose two each."

"Well I don't see any problems with that." Alice smiled. "You've already about yours haven't you?"

"Must definitely." Luke grinned.

They reached the doors for the ED.

"I really need to go back to my office and do this report. Can you make sure I'm not disturbed?"

Alice kissed Luke. "Yeah of course I can."

She carried on back towards minors, she back around and waved her picture at Luke smiling. Luke did the same before heading back up to his office after Alice disappeared around the corner.

When he got to the door, he found a note stuck on the door.

_Come to Darwin, I want to ask you something_

Luke didn't recognise the handwriting but he decided a little adventure wouldn't hurt besides he hadn't see Jac since last week and he hadn't seen Elliot for a while.

Luke ventured up to the sixth floor and he walked through to the nurses station , greeting staff as he walked past. He stood at the nurses station, chatting to one of the of other doctors when someone spoke to him.

"What have we done to deserve you up here?" The voice said.

"Afternoon Jac, it is lovely to see you as well." Luke replied.

"Yeah, yeah but what are you doing here?" Jac asked again.

"I'm hear to see someone, they left a note on my door."

"Well it wasn't me." Jac said.

"Well it was too polite to be you anyway, so I'd already ruled you out."

"Haha." She laughed sarcastically.

"Look, Jac I have a question. Quite a serious one actually." Luke said.

"You aren't dying are you?" Jac asked.

"No, I wouldn't choose to tell you that here. No it's got something to do with the twins."

"Are they both ok? She asked.

"They're both fine, they're perfect," Luke showed Jac the picture of the ultrasound. "Me and Alice have decided that we each get to choose two Godparents each. Jac you are my best friend in the whole world, we have been through so much together. Jac will you be one of those sprogs godmother."

Jac stared at Luke then hugged him. "Of course I will. Only if you do the same for me."

"You know I will."

Jac held on to Luke for a few more seconds, which was unusual for her to be so public with her affection. She then let go and wiped her cheek.

"Are you crying?" Luke asked.

"No." She said defensively. "I've got patients to see, I'll see you soon."

Luke watched Jac walk away . He was still none the wiser about who had asked him up here.

"Ah, you got my note then." A voice said.

Luke turned around it. It was Elliot.

"Good to see you Prof. What's with all the cloak and dagger?" Luke asked.

"I apologise for that but urgent matters meant that I couldn't hang about at your office and Zoe said you might have been a while, mentioned it was Alice's scan and didn't want to disturb that. How are they both?" Elliot said.

"Fighting fit and perfect." Luke smiled and handed Elliot the picture.

"They are very lucky to have you both as parent," Elliot smiled as he hand back the picture and put his glasses on his head. "Let's go into my office, I have a proposition for you." Elliot said.

Luke followed Elliot in. Luke sat in front of Elliot.

"Right so, I'm sure you know Jac goes on maternity leave in a few weeks which means I'll be a consultant down." Elliot began.

"Right..." Luke listened.

"Look at the moment , I'm struggling to find a locum. I know you might feel a little out of practice, but I have lots of confidence in you. Anyway, Zoe has given me permission to use you for a little while just until I can get someone a little bit more permanent. You won't be here all the time, just to cover some of Jac's shifts. So what do you think?" Elliot smiled.

"Elliot of course I say yes. You know I've always respected you and Jac is my best friend. So of course I'll help you." Luke said.

Elliot stood up and offered Luke his hand which Luke took.

"Welcome to Darwin , Dr Stone."


	8. Chapter 8

"Its going to be weird not having you around, are you sure you have to do this?" Alice said to Luke over the phone.

Today was Luke's first shift on Darwin. Elliot had asked for him to provide some cover shifts on the ward whilst Jac was on her maternity leave. Luke jumped at the chance, cardiothoracics was what Luke, along with Jac, had intended to be his first choice in specialising in but then things changed and specialised in emergency medicine but cardiothoracics still held a special place in his heart and he wasn't a permanent change.

"Yes, I'm really looking forward to it if you must know. Look this time next week, I'll be back downstairs with you were I belong. Besides its nice to get a break from you, I do see you all the time at home."

"Oi." Alice said down the phone.

Luke chuckled. "Sorry, I'm only messing. But I'm doing this for Elliot and Jac as favours for two very good friends. Look I have to go I'm supposed to be meeting Elliot any minute now for a briefing. I'll come and see you on my break maybe we can grab some lunch." Luke said to his wife.

"Ok, that does sound nice. I'll let you get on. I love you." Alice said.

"I love you too." Luke replied.

Luke ended the call and sat one of the tables in Pulses, the small hospital cafe in the reception, whilst he waited for Elliot. Luke brought a coffee each for him and Elliot. Within seconds of placing the coffees on the table he saw Elliot appear out of the lift. As Elliot waved at him, he dropped the patient files in his hands.

"Typical Elliot." Luke thought to himself.

Luke got up and went over to give him a hand picking up the files.

"Thank you." Elliot said to Luke as he handed him the files. "Excited?"

"Very. I can't wait to get back right back into it." Luke said confidently.

"Good, good. Jac said you done some cardiothoracic work whilst on your time away?" Elliot asked.

"Yeah, I did. I headed up a clinic in Africa for a few months. Not only to keep the skills fresh but because I miss it too. I mean emergency medicine is my passion and it's where I enjoy being but cardiothoracics is like the elusive mistress that you shouldn't keep going back to but can't stop yourself."

Elliot chuckled as they sat back down at the table Luke had put his things at. Elliot allowed Luke to look through some patient files whilst he studied another document.

"Remarkable." Elliot said as he read the file.

"What is?" Luke asked.

"Zosia March, she's a new F1 starting with us today," Elliot said as he passed the file to Luke.

"Good job Jac isn't in today then. We all know her opinion on junior doctors." Luke chuckled.

"She does tend to forget she was one once. But there's nothing she could complain about where Dr March is concerned. Just look at grades, top of her class in every department. Her clinical excellence only matched by her quest in intellect." Elliot said.

"She is rather remarkable I must agree." Luke said agreeing with Elliot.

Elliot and Luke finished their coffees and they went up to his office. They opened the door and inside was a lady who was sorting out Elliot's desk.

"What are you doing?" Elliot asked.

"Hopefully making your life easier professor. I've placed your books in order and now I'm organising your desk." The lady replied.

Luke chuckled to himself.

"My books were in order. The good ones on the top shelf, the mediocre ones on the middle shelf and the rubbish ones on the bottom." Elliot said.

"Well next time I'll check first." The lady said.

"Next time?" Elliot queried.

"Yes, I'm Zosia your new F1. I do apologise professor I was only trying to help." Zosia said.

"Oh no, no, no. Please don't apologise." Elliot said trying to take back everything that he had just said. "Please call me Elliot."

"Well I am absolutely thrilled to be working with you Elliot." Zosia said shaking his hand.

Luke coughed to get everyone's attention.

"Oh right, yes. Zosia please meet Dr Stone. He is one of our consultants from the ED but is loaning us some of his time up here on Darwin whilst Ms Naylor is maternity leave." Elliot said introducing Luke.

"Please call me Luke." Luke said shaking Zosia's hand.

"Pleasure to meet you too Luke." Zosia said politely.

"Now you will be working with Luke today Zosia, as I have a very busy schedule with the board. But be rest assured, you are in safe hands with Dr Stone, not only did he begin his time as a doctor as a CT surgeon, he also performed life saving CT surgeon whilst in the ED and during his time as a soldier and during his time away from the hospital he ran cardiothoracic clinic in Africa." Elliot assured Zosia.

"I'm happy to learn from whoever you see fit. If you trust Dr Stone, then so do I." Zosia smiled.

"Well then duty calls." Luke said as he stood up from the table that he had been sat on.

"I shall check in with you both later." Elliot said as he sat behind his desk.

Luke opened the door for Zosia as they began their rounds of the ward.

"Why the change of heart, pardon the pun, from CT to emergency medicine Dr Stone?" Zosia asked.

"I just wanted the frontline action, that's part of the reason why I became an army medic. If I hadn't had been injured, I would have still been out there saving lives and making a difference. But I can still make that difference here. CT medicine will always have a special place in my heart, and I don't need an excuse to brush up my skills or an excuse to come and do a shift up here." Luke explained.

Luke and Zosia walked through the ward to their first patient.

"Good morning, what have we got here?" Luke asked Jonny.

"This Ethan Millar, 16 years old. Ethan is here with his mum Anna." Jonny said.

"Right hello Ethan, I'm Dr Stone and this is Dr March. What bring you into to see us today?" Luke asked.

"Her." Ethan pointed at his mum whilst texting on his phone still.

"Ethan collapsed after complaining of breathlessness." Jonny said.

"Ok, we will review in five minutes. In the meantime, what do we need Dr March?" Luke asked.

"An ECG?" Zosia replied.

"Very good." Luke smiled.

Five minutes passed and Luke got the results of Ethan's ECG. He went to find Zosia to show the results.

"So, we can see signs of atrial fibrillation which we have already been made aware of but apart from that…" Luke began.

"Nothing." Zosia said finishing his sentence.

"Indeed. Come on."

Luke lead Zosia back to Ethan.

"Mrs Millar we've had the results of Ethan's ECG and there is nothing out of the ordinary I'm afraid. We'll refer him to the outpatient's clinic for a fortnights time…"

Luke was cut off by Anna. "No, you have to do something now." Anna begged.

"Let's just put things into perspective here…" Luke started but again got cut off.

"Don't send him away, what happens if he collapses again and doesn't get up." Anna said sounding very concerned.

"Ok." Luke said, he drew the curtain around Ethan's bed.

Luke took off his stethoscope from around his neck. He warmed the resonator with his hand and then placed it on Ethan's chest to listen to his heart.

"His chest is clear and he's of normal weight for a child of his age. Dr March, why don't you take Mrs Millar somewhere quiet so you can get his details whilst I run a few more tests." Luke said.

"I'd rather not leave him." Anna said defensively.

"Mum, I'm 16." Ethan argued back.

"Ok then." Anna said, she went to kiss Ethan on the cheek, but he moved away.

Zosia led Anna away and when she was out of ear shot, Luke went on the side rail of Ethan's bed.

"Ok then, tell me what really happened this morning." Luke asked knowing that there was something more going on.

"It was just as she said. I was getting up from breakfast then I got out of breath." Ethan recounted the events just as his mum had described them to Jonny.

"But you're not breathless now." Luke said.

"That's because I'm sat down. Look do you admit that I've got a dodgy heart?" Ethan asked.

"I've seen dodgier but yes I do." Luke said.

"Well my mum is worried about me and your meant to be helping me, so I suggest that you do something." Ethan said sarcastically.

"Ok, I'll be back soon." Luke smiled.

Luke had a plan he just needed some time to set it up. Once he was ready, he went back with Jonny to get Ethan and lead him to his experiment. He had set up an exercise bike in the conference room. Luke and Jonny set up him up on the heart monitor and gave him an oxygen mask.

"Ever done anything like this before?" Luke asked.

"Not sure, maybe." Ethan said.

"Basically, all you to do is pedal as hard as you for as long as you can. So, we will start you on easy mode and you can start whenever you are ready." Luke said.

Luke and Jonny went over watched the monitor. Ethan started pedalling but he was barely turning the pedals and stopped after a minute. Jonny and Luke both looked at each other went back to Ethan.

"Why did you stop?" Luke asked.

"You know why, I'm ill." Ethan said sarcastically.

"My auntie is 86 and has just had a double hip replacement and she could pedal faster than that." Jonny told Ethan.

"I don't want to do your stupid test." Ethan argued.

"Right ok then, tell me just before you felt breathless what happened?" Luke asked.

"Me and mum were arguing." Ethan replied.

"Well, I wouldn't call that nothing. What were you arguing about?" Luke said.

"I want to go to New York with school, but she wouldn't let me because I'd just been on school trip to Italy." Ethan sighed.

"Let me get this straight, you found out that you couldn't go to New York and then you collapsed. Do you think the two events go be connected?" Luke proposed.

Ethan shrugged. "Look you said yourself I was ill. I've got FA."

Luke chuckled. "AF actually but close enough."

"You know if you lay on the floor, your mum would pay didn't you." Jonny said.

"It's not my fault I've been brought up badly." Ethan said.

Just then Anna burst into the conference room, closely followed by Zosia.

"How dare you! You asked this young woman to give me a psychiatric assessment." Anna shouted.

"I did nothing of the sort." Luke said remaining calm.

"Oh, don't play the innocent how gullible do you think that I am? You've obviously decided that I'm some hysterical old bat who suffers from iatrophobia." She continued to shout.

"Iatrophobia?" Luke questioned.

"Come on Ethan, I'm discharging you." Anna told Luke.

"You can't, because I already am." Luke replied.

Just then Ethan started to gasp as if he was struggling to catch his breath.

"Now look what you've done." Anna shouted.

"It's really very good actually." Jonny said unimpressed.

Zosia rushed over and crouched down next to him and listened to his breathing.

"No Luke, this is real." Zosia said.

Luke asked Jonny to go and get a trolley and Luke crouched down too. Jonny came back with the trolley and they loaded him on, and Luke ordered another test. The results came back, and Luke went back to see Ethan. Zosia followed.

"Mrs Millar, we have the results of Ethan's electrophysiology test and I can confirm that his atrial fibrillation has worsened, so he will need an operation. But as luck would have it, we do have a window in theatre this afternoon." Luke explained.

"Well do you know what take your window and open jump out of it and make sure follows you." Anna spat.

"Please, Dr March didn't mean to cross examine you. She's young, bright and inquisitive." Luke said.

"Standing right next to you." Zosia whispered.

"I don't care. I don't want her near me or my son." Anna said.

"I completely understand but please don't ignore my help completely. I do believe that I can help your son." Luke explained. "Ethan is that ok with you?"

Ethan nodded.

"Thank you," Luke turned to Jonny. "Can we get him prepped for theatre please."

Jonny nodded. Zosia and Luke walked away.

"I'm sorry about that. But I think it would be best if you steer clear until we get into theatre." Luke said.

"Its fine, as long as Ethan gets treated that's all that matters." Zosia said.

Luke walked towards theatre to get scrubbed in. Ethan was already lying there ready to be put under.

"I'm scared, doc." Ethan said.

Luke crouched down next to him.

"Of what?"

"Isn't it obvious, my heart's packing up. That's a pretty big deal."

"Listen, I've performed this operation countless times and I haven't lost a patient yet. The big guns are on standby as well to come in a take over if they have to." Luke assured him.

"I suppose this serves me right." Ethan said. "This is my punishment for pretending to be ill and now I really am ill and I'm going to snuff it."

"Don't talk like that. Not only will you be better your quality of life will dramatically improve as well." Luke smiled.

"You mean I'll get rich and famous and have loads of girls." Ethan laughed.

"I don't see why not." Luke said.

Just then the anaesthetist came over.

"Right see you on the other side." Luke said as he stood up patting Ethan on the shoulder.

Luke scrubbed in for theatre and went through. Luke began the operation and it was going well but then the monitors started to beep.

"He's in VF." Zosia told Luke.

"Paddles, charge to 100." Luke said. "Ok charging…clear…shocking."

"Still in VF." Zosia said.

"Again." Luke told the theatre nurse.

They shocked Ethan again. Still nothing.

"Ok prepare internal fibrillation." Luke said to Zosia.

Luke tried one round of internal fibrillation and got nothing but on the second attempt…

"Output." Zosia sighed.

"Ok everyone thank you. Let's get this over with quickly." Luke told the theatre team.

The rest of the operation went by without a hitch. Luke and Zosia were walking through the ward to give them the good news.

"Well you passed the audition Dr March." Luke said.

"I've never seen someone die before, I thought Ethan was going to be my first." Zosia replied.

"Well you'll need to get used to losing patients if you are going to specialise in heart surgery." Luke assured her.

"Oh, I'm not. I hope to specialize in psychiatric medicine." Zosia told Luke.

"Zosia, I'm going to ask you a question and I want a straight and honest answer. Where you trying to analyse Mrs Millar?" Luke asked.

Zosia didn't say anything for a moment then spoke. "The woman clearly has unresolved anger issues."

Luke let out a deep sigh. "Zosia were supposed to be treating her son, now I am going to have to apologise for your completely inappropriate behaviour."

Luke walked away from Zosia leaving her standing in the middle of the corridor. Luke found Ethan back on the ward.

"Hey doc. I'm still alive." Ethan said happily.

"I did promise you. Now, your breathing should hopefully be a lot easier and hopefully you won't be needing any more operations any time soon. Now I'm saying your going to become an Olympic athlete anytime soon, but you'll definitely find something a lot easier." Luke said. "Mrs Millar, I also owe you an apology, in fact several apologies. All of your suspicions about your son were accurate and based off of what you had accurately observed as a loving mother. I am also genuinely sorry, if my student asked you inappropriate questions. I will ensure that she is sufficiently reprimanded."

"No apology can excuse her actions. She is your student and you are meant to be her mentor, so you have clearly failed in your duty." Anna said to Luke.

"But he did save your son's life today." Jonny said in Luke's defence.

"Well I suppose he did." Anna said not really sure how to argue with that.

"I'll let you get some rest and come check on you in the morning. Jonny will look after you until the night shift arrive." Luke said as he left HDU.

Luke finished his shift and gathered his things from the staff room. When he left Alice was sat at the nurse's station waiting for him.

"What happened to lunch?" She asked.

"Oh Alice, I'm really sorry." Luke apologised.

Alice reached out and put a finger to his lips to get him to be quiet.

"Jonny tells me you were in theatre saving a young boy's life so I guess you can be forgiven for that. You can just make up to me by taking me out for dinner. My mum is picking up Lilia, so we don't have to worry about her." Alice said.

"Did you actually do any work today?" Luke asked with Alice's finger still over his mouth.

"Yes, you cheeky sod." Alice said as lightly gabbed his stomach. "This is what happens when you get stood up for lunch. Italian sounds nice though."

Luke let Alice stand up and took hold of her hand as they walked towards the lift. As they got there, Zosia stood next to them as they waited for the lift. They stood in awkward silence whilst they waited they then got in the lift when Zosia broke the silence.

"Aren't you going to introduce us Dr Stone." Zosia said clearly talking about Alice.

"Alice, this is Zosia March, a new F1 on Darwin. Zosia, this is Alice Stone. My expectant wife."

"Pleasure." Zosia said shaking Alice's hand.

"Likewise." Alice replied.

Just then lift reached the bottom floor and the doors opened.

"See you in the morning Dr Stone." Zosia smiled.

"You too Dr March." He smiled back.

They watched as Zosia walked off.

"She seemed nice." Alice said.

"Just needs a bit of fine tuning." Luke replied.


	9. Chapter 9

Luke was sat in the Darwin office looking over some files when there was a knock at the door. Luke was still on Darwin; he was covering a shift for Elliot who had been called away by the board. Luke looked up to see who it was knocking on the door. It was his temporary mentee, Zosia March.

"Dr March, how may I help?" Luke asked.

"I could use your help." Zosia said.

"Of course, I've been looking for a distraction." Luke smiled as he shut the files and stood up.

Luke followed Zosia who was set up in bed dressed up in a costume. He has clearly come from a Halloween party.

"Hi there, I'm Dr Stone. Could I just get you to lean forward for me so I can listen to your chest," The man lent forward as Luke asked and Luke listened to his chest. "Excellent thank you. You can sit back now. Can we get an ECG, an MRI and FBC's as well."

"Come on man, I only fainted." The patient protested.

"Dr March, your opinion?" Luke asked.

Zosia took out her stethoscope and listened his chest. Luke took the fake axe off the man's head as well, because it was proving rather distracting for him to look at.

"Crackling sounds on the chest. Auscultation?" Zosia proposed.

"Yes, very good." Luke said agreeing. "Let us get him monitored. Is there any history of heart disease in your family Mr…?"

"Thompson, Max Thompson." The man said. "How am I supposed to know anyway? Dad died but that was an accident. What's happening?"

"Well this wasn't just a faint, Mr Thompson. You are having problems with your heart. We won't know until the test results are in to say what it is definitively." Luke explained.

"This is a joke?" Max asked.

"Unfortunately, not. Have you been experiencing any palpitations recently?" Luke questioned.

"On and off for the past few days but I've had fresher's flu." Max replied.

"Fever? Dizziness?"

"I've just had the flu. Look doc, I go the gym but the stage I was on collapsed. I didn't even get a chance to get started on vodka…." Just then Max grabbed at this chest and sat forward. He began to hyperventilate. "I can't breathe."

"Ok 50mg of diclofenac and the mask please…Zosia the mask."

Zosia put the oxygen mask up to Max's mouth to help him breathe. Max took hold of the mask and Zosia injected him with the diclofenac.

"Ok Dr March can we get a hurry on with these tests please. Tell the lab we need the results as soon as possible. Ten-minute observations and you are to contact me straight away if there any significant changes. Ok thank you." Luke said.

Luke was sat at the nurse's station sign off some paperwork and looking at some scans when he heard Mo sighing as she scrolled through a dating website on one of computers. Luke wheeled his chair up behind her to see who she was looking at.

"Better not let anyone important catch you." Luke said.

Mo jumped out of her skin and flung out an arm to hit Luke jokingly in retaliation.

"You scared the life out of me." She said.

"I can see that." Luke laughed. He studied the screen and laughed some more.

"You cannot be serious, is that his actual hair? That guy is a dead ringer for the new phlebotomist. Please tell me that isn't the guy you are going to meet."

Mo laughed too. "No, no. Check this one out."

Mo scrolled through some more profiles and they both laughed hysterically at some of the embarrassing profile photos of some of the men on the website.

"Did you click a box that said hair fashion victim?" Luke said as he tried to catch his breath.

"No. But this is the guy." Mo clicked on a profile who was in fact a man who was bald.

"He's alright." A voice said behind them. They both turned around. It was Jac. "You do know all men are at least two inches shorter than they say they are."

Mo and Luke glanced at each other and then back at Jac, she was clearly hiding something.

"What? I have not had any experience. It's common knowledge." She said.

Jac turned around and walked away. Luke said bye to Mo and caught up with Jac. Once he caught up with, he put his arm around her. As soon as he did, she picked up and took it off her.

"Charming." Luke said to her.

"We are at work." She replied bluntly.

"So…how are you?" He asked.

"Fine." She simply replied.

"Just fine?" Luke carried on.

"Yes, just fine. Do you want something?" She asked coolly.

"I was just wondering if you had spoken to Jonny recently."

"And why would I need to do that." She asked.

"Well believe it or not you are heavily pregnant with his child or had that slipped your mind." Luke replied.

"Yes, I might be but that doesn't mean that I have to check in with him every hour to tell him how I'm doing." They reached the lifts and Jac pressed the button. "Is that everything?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to come over for dinner with me and Alice, probably for the last time before babies are born." Luke said.

"This isn't some ploy to get me to talk to Jonny is it?" Jac asked.

"No, it isn't." Luke said.

Just then the doors to the lift opened and Jac stepped inside.

"I'll think about it." She said as the doors closed.

"So that's as yes then! Saturday night at seven." Luke called as the doors shut.

Once the doors were completely shut, he turned around and walked back towards the ward. When he got back, Zosia was waiting for him with the test results. It was as Luke feared, he had myocarditis, inflammation of the heart.

"But Max is so young." Zosia said.

"The thing is myocarditis can affect anymore no matter how old they are and can cause sudden death at any age." Luke explained.

"Wait are you saying that Max could die?" Zosia asked.

"Worst case, the infection can cause complete heart failure." Luke told Zosia.

"What about a heart transplant?" Zosia wondered.

"Well this is the problem; in acute inflammation a heart transplant wouldn't be possible. Even if it were there are always too few organs available when you need them, and a new heart would be compromised by the virus anyway." Luke elaborated.

"You mean there is nothing that we can do?" Zosia said.

"Zosia, it's good to see you showing an interest as I have been worried about your lack of engagement with surgical procedures…" Luke began.

"Dr Stone, I've told you I have no interest in surgery." Zosia reiterated.

"Yes I know but…"

Zosia cut Luke off again. "Luke, are you saying that there is nothing we can do?"

"We need to stabilise his heart and move to HDU as soon as possible." Luke told Zosia.

Just as Zosia was about to walk away a woman came over, she looked rather concerned.

"Hi, I'm looking for Max Thompson. I'm his mother." The lady said.

"Oh, right I'm Dr Stone and this is Dr March we've been looking after your son." Luke introduced himself as he stood up.

"What's happened?" Max's mum asked.

"We'll take you through to see him and discuss the situation there." Luke said.

"No, we can't." Zosia interjected. "I've tried talking to Max about him allowing you to see him, but he has made it abundantly clear that he does not want you to see him."

"What do you mean? I'm his mother." Max's mum said rather upset.

"I'm sorry Mrs Thompson, but we can't force Max to see him and as he is an adult, he has the right to make his own decisions." Luke explained. "Let us go to my office and we can have a chat in there. Dr March can and go check on Max to make sure he's ok and to see if he's changed his mind."

Luke led Mrs Thompson into his sofa, and they sat on the settee that was in there. He made her a cup of tea and handed it to her.

"Thank you. It's just been so difficult since his dad died." Mrs Thompson said.

"Well, once they are all grown up, we seem to think the problems stop." Luke sympathised.

"But I don't think they ever do stop. You seem a bit to worrying about teenage parental problems anyway." Mrs Thompson said as she wiped a tear off her cheek.

Luke pulled out his wallet and took a picture out and handed it to Mrs Thompson, he pointed at Maisie. "Well, I have a teenager live with me, her name is Maisie, I've looked after her since she was fourteen. She was a patient on my very first day here and then her parents died on the same day. So, I took her in, and I have looked after her ever since, me and my wife formally adopted her on her sixteenth birthday, that was one of the happiest days of her life. She's nineteen now and in her second year of university training to be a doctor just like me at the same London University and I couldn't be any prouder," Luke then pointed at Lilia. "Then this is my little sister, she is seven now, I look after her too just started in year 3. Our mum left her with me after she went home to Australia after her terminal cancer diagnosis, we haven't seen her in four years because she didn't want us to see her suffer." Finally, Luke pointed at Alice. "And this is my wife Alice, shes a nurse in the ED, we met here, and it was love at first sight. She is pregnant with our twins who are due in February. So, I might be young, but I worry like any other parent. But Mrs Thompson…"

"Leanne, you can call me Leanne." Mrs Thompson said.

"One thing is for certain Leanne. Your sons' condition is because of the virus and that is what is making his heart weak." Luke told Leanne.

"So, he is going to get better doctor?" Leanne asked.

"Our priority is to give your sons heart the best chance of recovery." Luke reassured her. "We are doing everything possible to look after your son."

Just then there was a knock on the door and Jonny appeared in the doorway.

"Its Max." Jonny said.

Leanna went to stand up to go and see her son. Luke didn't stop her.

"Come with me." Luke said.

Leanna nodded. Luke picked up his stethoscope and ran through the ward. Zosia was there assessing him, his monitor was beeping.

"Ok, can you give 0.5mg of atropine intravenously. He's bradycardic and SATS at 60%, can you increase his oxygen." Luke said to Zosia.

Zosia increased the oxygen flow to Max's mask.

"Max can you hear me?" Luke asked.

Max nodded and his monitors and breath rate stabilised.

"Max, your heart is deteriorating faster than we would have liked. It's not working properly." Luke explained.

"But you can fix it?" Max asked Luke.

Luke took a deep breath. "I'm afraid that the virus makes that impossible."

"What do you mean?" Leanne asked.

"Your condition is critical, and we will do everything to make you comfortable. This is very serious." Luke explained.

"Dr Stone…" Zosia tried to offer an opinion.

However, Leanna cut her off. "Couldn't you give him a transplant?"

"A transplant would be out of the question. If an organ were available, Max's body would have to be free of infection to prevent the body rejecting the organ." Luke explained.

"Dr Stone, what about the Herzig." Zosia interjected.

Luke could not believe that Zosia had offered an operation that would not be possible for Max and spoken completely out of turn in front of his patient.

"Dr March, a word please." Luke said unimpressed.

Zosia walked out of HDU and Luke led her into the office.

"Dr March, you do not speak out of turn in front of my patients. Furthermore, you do not offer them impossible operations." Luke said in a raised voice to Zosia.

"But Max is a suitable candidate for the Herzig." Zosia said calmly.

"That may be, but Max's virus has offered an extreme overextension of his right ventricle. We couldn't possible offer him a suitable extension of his life…"

Zosia cut Luke off. "But there is a chance, surely we should be taking it."

"Dr March, I think we should take you off of the case. I'm sure Ms Naylor has plenty of other cases that you will be able to assist on." Luke said.

Just then Leanne opened the door to the office and walked in.

"I will not lose my only child. Why can't he have this Herzig." Leanne demanded.

"Mrs Thompson, the Herzig isn't a viable option for your son." Luke said.

"You have to try and do something for him." Leanne begged.

"I understand how upsetting this really must be…" Luke began.

"Why would she even suggest if it wasn't even an option." Leanne cut him off.

"Dr March is still in training and should not be making surgical decisions and should not have brought it up. She will no longer be assigned to your sons' case. I assure once again, that there is nothing else that we can do." Luke reassured Leanne.

Leanne leaned in towards Luke. "I find that we can always do more."

Leanne turned on her heel and walked out of the office. Zosia closely followed. Luke sat behind the desk and put his head in his hands, and he took a deep breath. He then picked up the phone and made a call and then another.

Luke was sat at the desk looking over a patient file when he heard the door open. Elliot walked in.

"You wanted to see me." Elliot said.

"Yes, it's Zosia." Luke said.

Elliot sat opposite Luke and Luke explained the situation to him.

"Well, you have a point." Elliot said.

Then there was another knock at the door. It was Serena.

"I trust this is important." Serena said as she shut the door.

"A question of ethics, Miss Campbell." Elliot said.

"Oh good." Serena said as she took the chair from Jac's desk.

Luke told Serena the situation as she had done with Elliot.

"Well, if this operation goes ahead and the patient lives, a young and no doubt attractive student. There will be more publicity from the press which would also attract more funding. It would not just be beneficial for the hospital Elliot but also think of the benefits for you." Serena said.

"We could implant ten of Herzig's a week, Max Thompson is still not a suitable candidate." Luke said.

"Herzig 4 is still a considerable size and this would limit his movement in a patient of his size." Elliot said agreeing with Luke.

"But is there a chance?" Serena asked.

Elliot and Luke looked at each other.

"It's remote." Elliot said.

"Please Elliot, I would never underestimate either of your talents. If there is anyone that could do this, it would be you two." Serena pleaded.

"Ok. I'm willing to give it a chance." Elliot said.

"If Elliot is willing to try then so am I." Luke said agreeing.

"Fabulous, you've made the right choice gentlemen. Know if you'll excuse me." Serena said.

She stood up and left the office.

Luke was walking through the ward, heading towards the Darwin theatres when he heard someone running after him. He turned around to see Zosia.

"Dr Stone, I would like to apologise for everything that happened earlier. But now that the operation is going ahead, I was hoping that I would be able…" Zosia began.

"I've already spoken with Ms Naylor and she's told me that you aren't actually interested in the actual procedure. What is your problem with surgery Zosia? Did you lose a patient? Zosia we can help with any fears that you have." Luke said to her.

"Dr Stone, I just want to chat with Max. I will of course apologise to Mrs Thompson first. I just would like to chat with Max before or after the operation." Zosia said.

"Zosia, no. I can see what this is. This is a chance for you to psychoanalyse my patient. Now as I understand Dr March you believe, and I quote, that surgery is just plumbing. Now I might only work on this ward part time, but here on Darwin, and specifically in the case of Max Thompson, the surgery we perform on this ward could not be further away from plumbing," Luke was very harsh with his wording. Then his facial expression softened. "However, with that being said, I will allow you to some of his pre-op testing. On two conditions, that you apologise to Mrs Thompson profusely for your behaviour and the second being that there will be no amateur psychiatry on this ward. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

Zosia nodded.

"Good. As well as this, since it was you that instigated this me and Professor Hope have agreed that we will allow you into theatre on an observational capacity alone." Luke said.

"Thank you, Dr Stone." Zosia replied.

Luke and Elliot took Max into theatre and gave Max his new artificial heart. Aside from some minor complications the operation went incredibly well.

Luke went back to the office after the operation and he opened the door, he found Jac sat on the floor eating a jar of pickles whilst disassembling a skeleton.

"Not even going to ask." Luke chuckled as he walked past Jac to get his bag.

"A little for my F1 that I seemed to have magically picked up." Jac said as she at a pickle. "You always did have a habit of passing your rubbish on to me."

"Why change what works?" Luke said as he packed his bag.

"Help me up." Jac said holding her arms out.

Luke grabbed her bag and helped his friend up.

"Come on, waddles." Luke joked.

"Well, I've changed my mind about coming to your house on Saturday now then." Jac said.

"I take it all back." Luke replied.


	10. Chapter 10

Luke was halfway through his first shift in the ED since he covered three weeks' worth of shifts on Darwin to out his old friend, Elliot Hope. Luke was signing off some paperwork when he overheard a conversation between Lily Chao, a difficult and abrupt F2, being rude to Robyn and Jamie, two of the best nurses that Luke had worked with. Luke looked at the clock on the computer he was working on and they both technically hadn't started their shift just yet. Once Lily walked away, Luke went over to them both to apologise for her behaviour because it was clear that she wasn't.

"Who does she think she is?" Jamie muttered to Robyn as they walked towards the locker room.

"The Queen of bloody Sheba." Luke said making both Robyn and Jamie jump.

"Luke! You're back!" Robyn said cheerfully pulling him into a hug. "It hasn't been the same without you."

"Thanks Robyn, I've missed you guys too." Luke said. "But on a more serious note, I do apologise to you for Dr Chao's behaviour towards you and I will be having a word with her."

"You don't need to do that; we're used to it now." Jamie said sadly.

"Well you shouldn't be, and no doctor should speak to a nurse like that, you are just as important as us." Luke told them. "I'll let you guys get ready. I'll catch you later."

Luke left the locker room and went to find Lily. He found her in cubicles treating the patient that she had asked Robyn and Jamie to do tests for.

"Dr Chao, a word please." Luke said. He seemed to be saying that expression a lot at the moment.

"But I'm with…" Lily tried to reply.

"I'm sure Rita will be ok finishing his obs on her own, she's a competent nurse." Luke said sternly.

Lily took off her gloves and followed Luke away from the patient's bed, so their conversation wasn't overheard.

"How many conversations have me and Dr Ashford had to have about your attitudes towards the nursing staff?" Luke asked.

"Well I thought this was a hospital, not a social club." Lily replied flippantly.

"Let's use today as opportunity to silence your critiques, let them see that you can work in a team. Impress me because I know you can. Like the expression goes if a job needs doing…" Luke said.

Lily nodded and returned to her patient and took over doing the obs from Rita.

Luke walked back through the ED when he heard the ambulance bay doors open. He'd missed that sound up on Darwin. He called out for Alice to join him and ran over to Iain who was bringing the patient in.

"Ok talk to me." Luke said as he heard the notes.

"This is Emma Bowman, 28. She took a heavy blow to the chest with a large spade. GCS 14. SATS 98% despite being on high-flow O2, pulse 90, BP 120 systolic and she's 10mg of morphine and 500 of saline." Iain said to Luke.

They had arrived into resus.

"Ok thanks Iain. Right guys on my count then please. Ready...brace…slide."

They moved Emma across on to the bed and Luke began his primary survey.

"Ok airway is clear, obvious bruising to the chest, breathing is shallow, and she is obviously in a lot of pain." Luke said out loud so everyone could hear.

"Pulse is 100." Alice told Luke.

"Ok, can we give her another 10 of morphine please. Alice can you get another line in please and do a venous blood gas," Luke said as he listened to her chest. "Ok airway is restricted. Right we are going to need a chest and abdo CT scans, can someone call radiology for me please."

"On it." Luke heard Fletch say.

Iain tried to take Emma's partner away, but she didn't want him to go anywhere.

"Ok can we do a log roll on to her side please." Luke called out.

Several nurses helped roll Emma on to her side. Luke felt her back to assess for any spinal injuries. Once he was happy, they rolled her back over.

"What's the verdict then doc?" Emma asked.

"Well there's no sign of any other injuries but we'll send you for your scan and have a chat afterwards." Luke assured her.

Emma asked for her partner, Jack, to come over. He bent down next to her and she gave him a description of her attacker, as they were both police officers. Luke asked Iain to take Jack out so that Emma could get some rest.

Luke was accompanying Emma up to radiology when Robyn came running after them.

"Luke! Tom needs you." She said catching her breath.

Like Tom, Luke also had a speciality in paediatric emergency medicine. Just then he saw Sam walking past.

"Dr Nicholls do mind taking over for me, I'll be back soon." Luke said.

"Of course." Lily nodded.

Luke followed Robyn into paediatric resus. When they got there, he found Tom struggling to intubate a young baby.

"What's up?" Luke asked.

"I haven't got much of a view the epiglottis is huge." Tom told Luke.

"Ok, the PICU you are on their way. What do you think we are looking at here?" Luke asked.

"It looks like classic epiglottitis to me, but she should be covered against it." Tom replied. "Oh ok, I'm in can I have the tube please?"

Luke handed Tom the tube and then the bag.

"Ok, placement is good. Can we attach her to the ventilator and tie off the tube please?" Tom asked one of the nurses.

"Robyn do you mind organising a chest x-ray as well for me." Luke asked her.

"Of course." She smiled.

"I'll be back in a minute Tom." Luke told his fellow doctor.

Luke left paediatric resus and went to find Emma. Just as he was walking towards the lift and the doors opened. Emma was coming back down.

"How is she?" Luke asked Sam.

"Nothing more than a bicortical fracture of the sternum but nothing more serious than that." Sam explained.

"Ok, treatment plan?" Luke asked.

"Admit her onto the ward for overnight observation but with any like she should be ok to return home tomorrow." Sam suggested.

"Good. I'll live that with you. Call me if anything changes." Luke said as he walked off.

Luke had barely rolled his sleeves down and got to the stairs to walk to his office, when he heard Alice calling out after him. Luke quickly turned his heel and came running back. He got back into resus; Emma had crashed Sam was performing CPR. Luke rolled his sleeves back up on a pulled on a pair of gloves.

"Ok what happened?" Luke asked.

"It was a VT arrest, must have been a cardiac contusion." Sam said.

"She was fine just now; we were talking and everything." Jack said quietly.

Luke placed a reassuring hand on Jack's shoulder.

"That's two minutes of CPR." Fletch said to Luke.

"Ok can we give her a milligram of adrenaline. Dad is a senior police officer and I don't fancy giving him any bad news." Luke said. "Ok adrenaline is going in."

"Still in VT." Sam said.

Fletch resumed compressions and Sam charged the defibrillator.

"Ok everyone clear…shocking." Sam said.

Nothing. Everyone began CPR and charging the defibrillator again. This went on for over half an hour. Fletch and Alice rotated between the two of them giving Emma chest compressions.

"Ok she's still in VT. How long have we been going?" Luke asked.

"39 minutes with shocks every two minutes. She's had a total of 10 milligrams of adrenaline and 300 of amiodarone" Sam told him.

"Ok let's complete this cycle and do a pulse check." Luke told his team.

Fletch reached then end of his compressions and Luke checked for a pulse.

"Nothing. I think it would be kinder if we let her go. Everyone in agreement." Luke looked at his team and everyone else agreed.

"No. You can't stop, there is always something you can do." Jack shouted. "After everything you have done, you can't just stop now."

Just then Iain, who was in resus with Jack, went over to Emma and started chest compressions.

"Iain stop right now!" Luke said sternly.

"No, I can do this." Iain said defiantly.

"No, you don't get to make that decision." Luke told him.

Sam had pull Iain's arms away before he would stop.

"Get out now." Luke whispered but the tone of his voice suggested that he was not impressed with Iain's actions. "Time of death, 12:13pm."

"No, she can't be." Jack said.

Jack stared at Luke for a while and left resus, Iain went chasing after him.

"Now, someone better tell Dixie she needs to have a word with and get him into line otherwise I will escalate…" Luke said through his teeth. Luke had never been more disappointed and annoyed at a member of staff he had worked with than right now.

"I'll have a word with him." Sam said. Her and Iain had history together in the army.

"Ok. I will be in paediatric resus if anyone wants me." Luke said as he took his gloves off.

Luke walked through to check on Tom.

"How's baby doing?" Luke asked.

"Temperature is improving. We are just waiting on PICU for a bed." Tom said. "All the symptoms are pointing towards influenza B."

"Surely she was vaccinated?" Luke wondered.

"Well I would have thought so." Tom agreed.

Charlie came into resus. "Mother is here, shes anxious to see her baby."

Luke thought to himself for a moment. "No, can we make her wait a few minutes please and I think we need to talk to mum and dad."

"Dad is being seen to by Dr Chao now in cubicles, he was running from the police and impaled his leg on a piece of wood as he tried to escape." Charlie told him.

Charlie took Luke to find the baby's mum. She was waiting nervously in reception.

"Hi I'm Dr Luke Stone, I take it your Madison's mum? Melissa, I believe?" Luke introduced himself.

"Yeah, can I go and see her." She asked.

"Not just yet. We just need to ask you and Madison's father a few questions first. If you would like to just follow me this way." Luke said gesturing towards cubicles.

Luke led on with Melissa following.

"What's wrong with her?" Melissa asked.

"That's what we are trying to work out at the moment that's why you can't go to see her just yet." Luke explained.

When they got to cubicles, Lily spotted them, and Luke waved her over.

"Dr Stone, I have requested a surgical review as per the instructions of Dr Ashford, but AAU is backlogged at the moment and I thought maybe me, and you could…"

"And you will wait for a surgeon to come and assess the leg. But one thing at a time Dr Chao, this is Madison's mum and we need to establish what is going on with her first." Luke said to her.

"Right can we establish some background. I take it you two aren't together." Charlie asked Melissa and Conor, Madison's dad.

They both replied equally disgusted at the thought of that.

"Last thing we did was sleep together and make a baby. He couldn't get away fast enough when I told him I was pregnant." Melissa said angrily.

"So who does Madison's normally live with?" Charlie asked.

"Me and she ain't going anywhere." Melissa told him.

This conversation descended into argument between Conor and Melissa about whether he had been paying enough money to Melissa in order to look after Madison and whether he was fit enough to look after. Luke thought to himself that he was glad that he happily married with Alice before they thought about having children. He was even more happy that they got to have a trial run with bringing up a child by having Lilia live with them from such a long age as well looking after Maisie as well.

"Alright enough." Charlie said trying to bring some peace. "Your social worker will be here this afternoon; you can see what he has to say on the matter."

"Well you can forget about seeing again after this! Your name isn't even on the birth certificate as far as I'm concerned your just some random man." Melissa shouted at Conor.

She threw one of Madison's toys at Conor and stormed off, Luke went after her. He decided it was probably best if he let Melissa see Madison because she must have been worried sick. Luke took her through to see her daughter.

"So there was a slight delay in getting her a space on the paediatric intensive care unit but we have now got her a bed and she will be on her way in any second." Luke explained.

"She's so tiny." Melissa said trying not to cry.

"We have diagnosed her with epiglottitis which is typically caused by a bacterial infection. Is Madison up to date with all of her vaccinations?" Luke asked.

"Of course, she is." Luke replied.

"It's important that we know all of the facts." Luke told Melissa.

"Why is everyone blaming me?" Melissa said offended.

"Apologies if it came across that way but that wasn't my intention. We are just doing what's best for Madison to make sure she gets better, I'm sure that's what you want." Luke said.

"Yeah of course." Melissa said.

"I'll be back later." Luke said.

Luke turned and left resus.

About an hour had passed when Luke went back to get Melissa and he took he back through to talk to Conor.

"God, what are we doing back here." Melissa sighed.

"He has as much right to know about Madison's progress as you do." Luke told her.

Luke drew back the curtain around Conor's cubicle and he was sat there looking at the teddy Melissa had thrown at him earlier.

"Right, the good news is we've managed to stabilise your daughter. We've started her off on some anti-biotics and we've moved her to intensive care." Luke explained.

"And the bad news?" Melissa asked.

"We've checked Madison's records and it appears she missed two crucial immunisations. Without these she would have been susceptible to illnesses such as diphtheria and meningitis amongst others." Luke continued.

Conor and Melissa began to argue and who was blame for Madison's missing these injections. The argument then turned to child support and whether Conor was doing enough to support his daughter. Melissa stormed enough when she had enough.

"Can I go and see my daughter now?" Conor asked.

"Let's deal with this piece of furniture in your leg first." Luke said.

"It's fine, it's already been dealt with." Conor said.

"May I?" Luke asked confused.

Conor nodded. Luke lifted the sheet that was covering Conor's legs and he saw that the piece of wood that was there earlier had been removed.

"Did a surgeon come and do this?" Luke asked.

"No that other doctor, the young one." Conor said.

"Right." Luke looked around the ED. "Ah Jamie, can you take Conor up to see his daughter in PICU please?"

"Of course, I can." Jamie smiled.

Jamie and Luke helped Conor out of bed and into a wheelchair. Jamie pushed Conor away and towards the lifts. Luke left cubicles and went to go and find Lily. Luke walked all through the ED to find her. Eventually he found he back where he began in cubicles.

"Dr Chao, can we have a chat please." Luke said sternly.

"Not right now, I'm rather busy." Lily said walking away from him.

"Dr Chao, we need to talk about your behaviour in cubicles earlier today." Luke said trying to remain calm.

"I don't know what you are talking about." Lily said as if she had no idea.

She walked through the doors that led her into the main reception area of the ED. By the point Luke had reached breaking point with Lily's defiance.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about! Conor Brady's leg." Luke shouted.

"I'm glad you noticed. I think I did a pretty good job wouldn't you say." Lily argued back, finally stopping.

"That is not the point…both me and Dr Ashford gave you explicit instructions to wait for a surgical consult." Luke continued to shout.

Charlie stepped in between them and told them to follow him into his office. Luke gestured for Lily to go first. As he walked into the office, he noticed Robyn and Jamie watching. Both had smug grins on their faces pleased that Lily was finally getting what she deserved.

"What if something had gone wrong? What is you had nicked the popliteal artery?" Luke shouted.

"Nothing went wrong. There was a little venous bleeding, but I handled it." Lily argued back.

"Half a centimetre to the left and he could have bled out all over cubicles!" Luke continued.

"That wouldn't have let the happen. I handled it, saving this hospital time, money and resources and it is about time that people realise what I am actually capable of." Lily said.

"And know we know, don't we?" Luke said a lot quieter but still with a lot of anger in his voice.

Charlie tried to calm the situation down.

"You told me to impress you. You have seen him, and he is fine." Lily said.

"The ends do not justify the means though." Luke said.

But this point he had enough of this argument. He turned and left Lily in the office with Charlie. Luke went up to his office and gathered his things up and came back downstairs.

"Some of the guys are going to the pub are coming?" Alice asked him as came back downstairs.

"Nope, I'm going home. I'm not going to be particularly good company this evening." Luke told her.

"Are you ok? What's happened?" Alice asked him as she grabbed hold of his wrist.

"Sorry, Dr Chao has pushed me to the limit today and I just want to go home." Luke told her.

"Ok." Alice said linking his arm. "Let's go."

Luke kissed his wife on the cheek, and they walked out of the ED. When they got outside Robyn and Jamie were waiting for him.

"Oh, Luke it's about time someone put her in her place. That was wicked." Jamie said gleefully.

"It just wish that I had got a video." Robyn laughed.

Luke looked down at Alice. "Actually, I think we should go for a drink."

Alice smiled up at her husband and gave him a kiss.


	11. Chapter 11

Luke and Alice were arriving for their shift; Luke hadn't been on shift since his argument with Lily at the end of his last shift two days ago. As he walked towards the entrance of the ED, he saw Lily.

"I'll catch up with you in a minute." Luke said as he kissed his wife on the cheek.

"Be nice." Alice said.

Alice blew a kiss at Luke as she walked away to catch up with some of the other nurses in the ED. Luke picked up the pace to catch up with her.

"Dr Chao, today for your will be somewhat different." Luke told her.

"Why did I do something wrong?" Lily asked.

"Let's not go there." Luke said trying to end the conversation.

"The patient was fine, there was no damage." Lily said defending her actions as they walked into the reception of the ED.

As they walked into the ED, Luke caught the attention of Rita who came over.

"Rita, can you make sure that Dr Chao get's all the BMWs today." Luke smiled.

"Of course." Rita said.

Luke and Rita walked away; Lily chased after them.

"BMWs I'll be able to them…" Lily said not really understanding what sorts of patients BMWs were.

Luke left Rita with Lily as he went up to his office. The day was passing relatively easily for Luke, he wasn't needed to deal with many major incidents. He came back downstairs a couple of hours into his shift. He was walking towards reception to hand Noel a patient file when he heard Lily calling out after him. Luke stopped to hear what she had to say. She started off by saying that she had built a solid foundation for herself in her career and that her talents weren't being used to the best of their ability.

"So far today I've dealt with one broken nail, a minor skin abrasion to the right cheek, one suspected case of constipation that really wasn't constipation and one old man who thought that he was suffering from a case of creeping blindness which was cured when I cleaned the patients glasses." Lily said. "So, can I please return to normal duties now."

"No. Not yet." Luke said bluntly.

"Why not?" Lily asked.

"I don't know who you've been speaking today but sucking up to me isn't going to work." Luke said through a false smile.

Luke walked back up to this office and soon as he opened the door, his desk phone started to ring.

"Dr Stone speaking." Luke answered.

"Luke, it's Zoe. I need Dr Chao back as a fully functioning doctor, its really beginning to stack up out there." Zoe said to him.

"Ok, that's fine. As well as she's still supervised." Luke asked.

"I don't care, just as long as she is working." Zoe replied.

"Ok, she's all yours." Luke told Zoe.

"Brilliant thanks Luke." Zoe said.

Zoe hung up and Luke put his phone down. Luke turned straight back around and went back downstairs to find Lily.

"Dr Chao, it's your lucky day. You will be returning to normal duties." Luke told her.

"Does this mean that I am forgiven?" Lily asked.

"Nope. It means that you are needed to do your proper job." Luke said abruptly. "So you will be going to cubicles, a patient named Simon Thomas is waiting there. He was injured in a training exercise."

Luke handed her, the patient file and walked off.

"Luke! We need you." Alice called out.

Luke came running over to cubicles and he found Jeff and Dixie waiting for him.

"Hi Lukey, This is Jack Drummond, 28 years old. He fell over in a graveyard, query closed fracture right tibia and fibula. He's had ten of morphine and Entonox so far." Jeff explained.

"Ok. Thanks Jeff." Luke smiled as he removed the splint from Jack's leg. "Hi Jack, didn't expect to see you again so soon. Are you in any pain?"

Jack just shook his head.

"Ok. We'll get this x-rayed for you and then we'll see what's going on." Luke told Jack.

Luke could see that Jack wasn't paying attention to him, but he was in looking off in the distance. Max, Robyn's brother, had brought in a gentleman dressed in a police uniform.

"Max could just wait there for me please. He needs to be taken for an x-ray." Luke asked. "Hi, do you work with Jack?"

"Yes." The man said. "I'm also Emma Bowman's father. Alan, Alan Bowman"

"Oh right, I'm very sorry. I was one of the medics that treated her. She was stable and doing really well…"

"What was PC Drummond like when he was brought in?" Emma's dad asked.

"I'm sorry?" Luke was very confused.

"He had a head wound. How bad was that?" Alan wondered.

"I'm afraid that I can't discuss other patients with you." Luke told him.

"You see, I have a problem. Jack didn't mention anything about receiving treatment, but he said that he was knocked out so badly that he didn't see his attacker. That doesn't make sense to me." Alan explained.

"I'm sorry, I can't help you. I think you need to leave." Luke told Alan.

Alan pushed past Luke and went over to Jack.

"Max." Luke said as he went over to stop Alan from hurting Jack.

"Let's go sit down somewhere." Max said to Alan.

Alan looked at Max then back to Jack. "You think you'll be able to get away with this, but you won't."

Alan then walked out of Jack's cubicle.

"I'll go organise your x-ray." Luke smiled at Jack.

Luke left Jack to get some rest and went over to the nurse's station to organise the x-ray for Jack. When he got there, he saw that Lily was working. He made the phone call and when he put the phone down, Lily came over to him.

"Can I ask for your opinion on something?" Lily asked.

"Of course." Luke replied.

"My patient, Simon Thomas, his behaviour has been erratic." Lily said.

"His temper?" Luke wondered.

Lily shook her head. "No, it's been more than that. One minute he seems and then the next he gets really aggressive. I have a theory about what is causing this, but I would like to run it past you first."

Luke closed the file that he was looking at. "Go on."

"Anabolic steroids, I've also noticed how muscular he is." Lily said.

"Makes sense." Luke told her.

"Well what should I do about it?" Lily asked.

"They aren't illegal, so all you can do is warn him about what is doing to himself." Luke replied.

Just then Fletch came over.

"Luke, results are back for Jack Drummond." Fletch told him.

"Ok, take them through. I'll be there in a minute." Luke said to Fletch. He then looked back to Lily. "Is that everything?"

"Yes, thank you…Is something wrong with that?" Lily asked very confused.

"No, no. Quite the contrary actually, that is the first time that you've asked for my advice since you came to this department." Luke smiled.

"Sorry, it won't happen again." Lily said. She couldn't tell whether Luke was offended by this or not.

"No, I want you to. Whenever you need some advice or even if you don't." Luke told her.

Lily smiled. "I'll go check on his x-rays."

She turned and walked away. Luke picked up his file and went to check back in on Jack.

"Well you're in luck." Luke said to Jack as he showed him his x-ray. "It Is broken, but the bone isn't displaced so there won't be any need for surgery. So will get it plastered but I am afraid you will be hobbling around on crutches for a while."

"So, I won't be able to work then." Jack asked.

"Unfortunately, not." Luke told him.

"Might be a blessing." Jack said to himself.

"Why do you say that?" Luke wondered.

"You saw what Emma's dad was like with me. I could do without bumping into him all of the time." Jack replied.

"I know you weren't knocked out by the blow to your head. I also know what it's like to live with guilt, it will slowly eat you alive…I'll get the plaster sorted." Luke said as he patted Jack on the shoulder.

Luke walked into the staff room to get himself a glass of water. When he saw Ash sat at the table.

"Lily came to ask me for advice earlier." Luke told Ash.

"Really?" Ash said sounding surprised.

"Mhm." He said as he swallowed his water.

Just then Lily came running in.

"Dr Ashford, it's Simon Thomas. He's assaulting your patient, Clive Winbourne." Lily said trying to catch her breath.

Luke slammed his glass onto to the side and went running out of the room with Ash closely following him behind. When they got to cubicles, they found Simon holding Clive by the scruff of his neck with Clive screaming in pain. Luke waved for security to come over and Ash tried to restrain Simon by he was easily beaten off and Ash hit head against the edge of the nurses' station. Luke jumped in with security to try and stop Simon from hurting anyone else.

"Get him into resus." Luke shouted to Robyn, talking about Clive so he didn't get hurt.

It wasn't an angry shout; it was to protect Clive from sustaining any further injuries as it already appeared as if he had come kind of spinal injury. Luke let go of Simon when the rest of the security team arrived so he could go and help Ash in resus.

"Fletch, call the police please." Luke said as he composed himself.

"Ok we need to find out if there is any further damage to his spine." Luke heard Ash say as he walked into resus.

Zoe was in there treating another patient and she looked at Luke wondering what all the commotion was all about. Luke gave her the look as if to say he'll tell her later on.

"Ok let's get some fluids into him and give him ten of morphine please." Ash asked one of the nurses. "I know you are in pain Clive, but I need to try and keep nice and still for me."

"Can we give him O2 please?" Luke took his stethoscope off from around his neck and listened to his chest. He had some depressed breath sounds. "What is causing this?"

"Woah, Martin." Rita said.

"Ash, stop. Your head is bleeding." Luke told him.

Ash carried on treating Clive. Rita handed Luke a dressing which he tried to put on Ash's head.

"BP still falling." Luke said.

"Here. It feels like there is depression here looks like a posterior dislocation." Ash said.

"Right Ash you've done enough, go and get your head wound dressed properly. Dr Chao will take you."

Ash stood up and walked away. Lily followed him.

"Do you want me to call orthopaedics?" Robyn asked Luke.

"No, we haven't got time, can you get me a towel clip please." Luke replied. Luke took Rita's hands. "Can you put some pressure on here please."

Robyn handed Luke the towel clip and Luke reduced the injury. Clive screamed in pain but once the worst of it was over, he began to breath normally again.

"Ok can we get another x-ray please." Luke said to Rita. Luke pulled his gloves off. "I'm going to have a chat with our friend Mr Thomas."

Luke walked out of resus and straight to cubicles. When he got there, he found Simon arguing with Charlie.

"I've had enough of this, I'm going." Simon shouted.

Simon stood up and tried to walk out, but Luke got in his way.

"Sit, you're going anywhere." Luke told him sternly. "You have attacked a member of my staff and a patient in my department. The police are already on their way."

"You are joking." Simon scoffed.

"Do I look like I'm laughing. You have assaulted a doctor and this department always presses charges when a member of staff is attacked." Luke said unmoved by Simon, who was clearly trying to intimidate him. "I also highly doubt your teammate is going to forget what you did to him in a hurry."

"I barely touched the guy." Simon laughed.

"He might not see it that way, seeing as he already had a pretty bad spinal injury which might have been made worse by you throwing him around." Luke said.

Simon looked at Luke and then sat down. Lily walked over.

"Good. I'm going to leave you with Dr Chao who will take a look at that arm of yours." Luke said as he walked away.

Luke went back to check on Jack.

"How are you feeling?" Luke asked.

"Can I see Alan?" Jack asked.

"Sure, yeah that's not a problem at all." Luke said.

Luke helped Jack into a wheelchair and took him through to resus, where he was being treated for a suspected heart attack by Sam.

Jack told Alan that he knew that his brother was in the house that Jack and Emma were searching when Emma got attack and how he let his brother go because he thought that it was the right thing to do. He never expected his brother to run into Emma and hit her so she died.

"Luke can you have a look at this?" Sam asked. She was holding the results of Alan's repeat ECG.

"Ok. Max can you take Mr Bowman up to the Cath Lab for me please." Luke asked.

"What's happening?" Alan's wife panicked.

"Alan needs a coronary intervention procedure where they will decide whether to clot bust or widen his arteries. We've caught it relatively earlier so should be able to save his heart." Luke explained.

"Should be able to? Can you not say for certain?" His wife wondered.

"Mrs Bowman, whilst I can't be entirely sure off of the basis of these results I can say it with relatively accuracy because I'm also a heart specialist. We do also have one of the best cardiovascular departments in the country in this hospital so your husband will be in safe hands and they will be able to run more conclusive tests and explain things better to you, ok?" Luke continued. "Now if you'll just excuse me, I need to call them to let you know that Alan is on his way up."

"Can I go with?" His wife asked.

"Yes of course, if you follow alongside Max and Jamie, they will take you straight up." Luke smiled as he waited for his call to connect.

"Thank you." Mrs Bowman whispered. Luke smiled and gave her a nod as he was on the phone.

The rest of the day passed relatively trouble free. It got to the end of the shift and the team headed over to the pub to celebrate Big Mac getting a new job as an Emergency Care Assistant.

"He's coming everyone!" Louise called out.

Mac opened the door, and everyone gave him a massive cheer and wished him congratulations on his new job. Whilst everyone was chatting and drinking, Luke got a call.

"Hello…oh right I'll be outside in just a second." Luke said.

He hung up. Luke went over to Alice.

"I'll be back in a second." Luke shouted into her ear over the noise of the music and people in the pub.

Luke stepped outside and there was someone sat on a bench waiting for him.

"Hello mate." Luke said.

"Hello buddy." The man said back.

Luke went over to give him a hug. It was his old colleague and best friend, Adam Trueman

"Oh, it's good to see you Adam, really good." Luke said.

"Good to see you too, man." Adam said back.

Luke and Adam sat down on the bench again.

"So, how have you been? Is it good being back?" Adam asked.

"It's amazing. I never knew how much I missed it." Luke said. "Obviously its not the same without you but it's just so good being back."

"And what's this I hear your doing locum work on Darwin as well." Adam said impressed.

"I can't let those skills slide." Luke chuckled. "But, how are you? How's Jess?"

Jess was Adam's wife. They met together whilst they were working at the hospital together. They briefly split following the death of their son, Harry. But after they both left the hospital their romance reconciled, and they are back together again. They have since had another son together, Oliver.

"She's good. Looking after the kids." Adam smiled.

"Good, good. Look, Adam I brought you here because I have a question. Would you do me the very great honour of being a godfather for one of the twins?"

"Of course, I bloody will." Adam said with a huge grin on his face.

He gave Luke another massive hug.

"Come on, let's go have a drink." Luke said.

Luke took Adam into the pub. Those that knew him welcomed him with open arms and those that didn't got talking to him quickly and started telling stories about his time in the ED. Luke pulled Alice to one side.

"He said yes. So, both my choices have said yes. What about you?" Luke asked Alice.

"Same." Alice smiled.

Neither of them had told each other who they had picked. Luke suspected that Alice knew who'd he picked because he was incredibly predictable and there was only two people that he had ever considered, and Alice knew this.

"So obviously, I have chosen Adam because why else would he be here and the other is obvious as well. It's Jac." Luke said.

"Well I'm not going to act surprised because I worked that out pretty damn quickly." Alice laughed. "Well I'd like to think that I'm not that predictable. So, I've gone for Donna Jackson."

Donna used to be a nurse in the hospital but left before Alice and Luke came back to the hospital, but she was one of Alice's oldest friends.

"You know her, I don't know why I introduced her like that. She's just like one of my oldest friends so that's obvious." Alice chuckled. "I've also chosen Elliot."

Elliot was surprised at this, he never thought she would consider him.

"Elliot?" Luke said surprised.

"Yes, Professor Hope." Alice said.

"But why?" Luke asked.

"I know how much he means to you and the support and opportunities he has given us; I couldn't think of anyone better." Alice smiled.

Luke gave Alice hug and a kiss.

"Oi, love birds get back here." Adam called out.

Luke and Alice smiled at each other and went back over to their friends.


	12. Chapter 12

Luke walked through the car park with his bag over his shoulder, it was his first shift of many that he would be coming to on his own now that Alice had officially go on to maternity leave as of her last shift. He walked into reception and walked up to greet Noel at reception.

"Morning Dr Stone." Noel said cheerfully.

"Morning Noel, how are you today?" Luke asked as he picked up his mail from behind the reception desk.

Noel started in the ED not long after Luke originally and he has been the main receptionist ever since. Seeing Noel always brightened up Luke's day.

"I'm very well thank you." Noel replied. "How's Alice?"

"Bored, she's not the sort of person who likes to sit around and have lots of free time." Luke chuckled.

Luke opened one of his letters but before he got a chance to read it, he was interrupted.

"Help!" A voice called out.

It was a man helping his daughter into the ED. The girl was in a dress, but she had vomited all over it.

"Ok can someone get me a trolley. Fletch I need you; we're going to cubicles." Luke called out as he dropped his bag behind reception. "Noel can you get on the phone to maintenance and get this cleaned as soon as for me."

"On it." Noel said dialling the number into his phone.

"My stomach is on fire." The girl whined; it was obvious she was in a lot of pain.

Luke ran over to her. "Ok, can you tell me your name sweetheart?"

She went to answer but she vomited over Luke's trousers and shoes.

"It's Ellie. Ellie Taylor." Her dad answered.

"Sorry." She answered as she wiped her mouth.

"It's ok darling, you didn't mean it. We're going to take good care of you." Luke said sympathetically. "Where is that trolley, I wanted."

"Here." Max said as he came racing through reception with it.

"Ok, lets help her up. 1…2…3" Luke helped Ellie onto the trolley with Fletch and Max. "Ok can we start her on some IV fluids please."

Luke listened to Ellie's chest as they wheeled her into a cubicle.

"Ok, are you her father?" Luke asked.

"Yes." He replied.

"Did she eat anything that could have made her sick?" Luke said trying to establish what could have caused this.

"No, she ate what I did." Her father replied.

"How old is Ellie?" Luke wondered.

"16."

"Is she on any medication? Any medical conditions, I should know about?" Luke asked.

"Errr…no not that I'm aware of." He replied, he wasn't very confident in his response.

"Do you know when this started?" Luke questioned.

"Last night." Ellie's dad said.

Luke turned his attention to Ellie.

"Ellie sweetie, I need you to be honest with me now. Did you take anything last night? Drugs? Alcohol? Were you at a party?" Luke asked.

"No, I was at home. I was just trying on my dress for the winter dance." Ellie cried.

Ellie was sick again, this time into a bowl instead of over Luke.

"BP is 138 over 88, pulse is 112 and SATS are 99%" Fletch told Luke.

"Let's give her 0.2 of hydromorphone." Luke said.

"No, no drugs!" Ellie cried.

Luke crouched down next to Ellie. "Sweetheart you are in a lot of pain. Please let me help you."

"No, I don't want any drugs." Ellie was adamant in her decision.

"She doesn't want to end up like me." Her dad said.

Luke looked over and could see the track marks on Ellie's dad's arms. He was a drug user.

"Ok, I will get a member of the general surgery team to come down and consult." Luke said. "I'll go clean up and get that organised."

Before Luke left the cubicle, he gave Fletch a series of tests to run. He went over to the phone at the nurse's station called for a member of the general surgical team to come and assess Ellie.

"Blimey you stink." Zoe said to him as she walked past.

"I was here about five minutes; I think that is a new record for me." Luke said as he put the phone down.

"Lovely. Hope you've got a spare set of scrubs." Zoe smiled to herself.

"Always." Luke said as he made his way to the locker room to get changed.

Once Luke got changed, he went back to get his bag from reception and take it to his office. Once Luke came back down, he saw that Sacha Levy, one of the general surgeons was waiting to speak to him.

"Sacha, good to see you." Luke said as he shook his hand.

"You too. So, I've had Ellie's test results back. Fast scan is negative, I-STAT labs are normal." Sacha explained.

"So, this probably isn't a surgical issue?" Luke wondered.

"Well, I'd like to perform an endoscopy to just be sure that we aren't missing anything." Sacha told Luke.

"But she's refusing pain meds." Luke told him.

"Maybe we could give her a non-narcotic, maybe that will help." Sacha suggested.

Luke drew back the curtain around Ellie's cubicle. It was clear that she was still in a lot of pain. Luke introduced Sacha and explained why he was here.

"Mr Taylor has Ellie ever experienced anything like this before?" Luke asked.

"Ummm…" Mr Thompson clearly didn't know the answer.

"Last year." Ellie said through the pain.

"How long did it last?" Sacha asked.

"A few weeks, like three." Ellie said.

"Your daughter was sick like this for three weeks and didn't realise." Sacha asked as he felt stomach to see if he could feel any abnormalities.

"I didn't know…" Mr Thompson said stumbling over his words.

"Because you were high?" Ellie said accusatorily.

"Yeah." Mr Thompson said simply.

Luke crouched next Ellie again. "Ellie we are going to give you a painkiller but its non-narcotic."

"I don't want anything." Ellie said.

"She won't even have two aspirin." Her father said.

"Did you see a doctor for you last attack?" Sacha asked.

"Yeah, but he couldn't find anything. He sent me to a psychologist, I promise I'm not making this up." Ellie pleaded.

"Its ok. We are going to get to the bottom of this for you." Luke said as he pat Ellie on the shoulder reassuringly. "We'll be back soon, just try and get some rest."

Luke stood up and walked out of the cubicle and Sacha followed after he pulled the curtain back around.

"She's in a lot of pain, maybe it is psychological." Sacha said.

"Maybe, I'll page Dr Jennings." Luke said.

"Ok, I'll be back later." Sacha said, as he walked back upstairs.

Luke called Dr Jennings and he came down to assess Ellie as soon as he could. He got Sacha back down to listen to what Dr Jennings had to say on the situation.

"It's a tough call. She's 16 years old , taking of herself and her heroin addicted father and has been doing it for years." Jennings said.

"She said she was trying on a dress for her winter dance, do you think that could have had something to do with it? Could it have been like a trigger?" Luke wondered.

"Maybe." Jennings shrugged. "I don't know enough in that area to make a call."

"The only way we will find what is going on is if we perform an endoscopy. But we can't do that if she's refusing pain medication and anaesthetics." Sacha sighed.

"Given her long family history of trauma, we have to take her concerns about addiction very seriously." Jennings told them both. "I have an idea, what about a good old-fashioned numbing agent?"

"It's worth a try." Luke agreed.

Sacha nodded in agreement. "Ok, thanks Chris."

Dr Jennings shook both of their hands and walked away. Luke got some numbing agent out of the cabinet and went back into Ellie's cubicle with Sacha. When they got there an endoscope was already waiting for them.

"Ok, so this is a numbing spray. It will numb your mouth and throat, but you will still feel some pressure in your throat but its nothing to be afraid of. With this spray you should be able to tolerate the scope." Sacha explained as sprayed the numbing agent in Ellie's mouth.

Ellie nodded to show that she understood. Sacha took a deep breath and picked up the endoscope and put it in Ellie's mouth. As soon as he put it in it caused Ellie to gag and wretch, Luke tried to get her to calm down but it was no use, Ellie reached her tolerance and vomited in her mouth causing Sacha to remove the scope.

"I'm sorry." Ellie said trying to catch her breath.

"No its ok." Luke smiled. "Fletch will look after you, me and Dr Levy will be back as soon as we have another plan."

"We need to talk to her father, now." Luke whispered to Sacha as they left cubicles.

Luke went to find Mr Taylor. He walked all around the ED to find him. He eventually found him waiting in the relative's room. Luke went in and sat down in the chair opposite him.

"Mr Taylor, I cannot bear to see your daughter in this much pain. I need your permission to give Ellie pain medication." Luke explained.

"I don't tell Ellie what to do, it's sort of a deal we have with each other." Mr Taylor said trying to get out of making a decision.

"I understand, but I need you to give us permission to sedate her just this once, so we can perform the endoscopy. Giving her this sedation will not turn her into an addict." Luke continued. Mr Taylor didn't answer. "Your daughter is overwhelmed by pain and depleted from vomiting; she cannot make the best decisions about herself in this state. But in the eyes of the law, Ellie is still a minor and you are her father and you can make this decision."

"I don't know." Mr Taylor said undecided.

"Ellie, needs you to step up and be her father Mr Taylor." Luke begged.

Mr Taylor stared at Luke for a few moments and then spoke. "Umm…ok…do it. Do what you have to do."

"Thank you." Luke smiled.

Luke rushed back to cubicles, but Sacha wasn't there.

"Luke, could do with some help in here please mate." Fletch called out from Ellie's cubicle.

Luke went in to see what the problem was.

"Heart rate up to 130 and blood pressure is rising." Fletch told Luke.

Ellie was wriggling about in pain.

"I'm afraid she'll have a dysrhythmia." Luke said to Fletch. "Ok give her 50 of fentanyl."

Fletch nodded.

"No! What is that? What is it?" Ellie begged, wanting Fletch to stop.

"Ellie, we have to do this, sweetheart. We have to find out what's going on with you." Luke told her as she begged him not to do anything to her.

Fletch pushed the drugs and Ellie slowly began to calm and drifted off to sleep. Just then Sacha appeared.

"What's happened?" He asked panicked.

"No, it's ok. I spoke with her father and he gave us permission to sedate her and perform the endoscopy." Luke reassured him.

"Ok." Sacha said. "Let's prep her."

Sacha began performing the endoscopy on Ellie, but he couldn't find anything wrong.

"Maybe her condition is psychological after all." Sacha said.

Just then, Dr Jennings head popped around the curtain.

"Dr Stone, a quick word." Jennings asked.

Luke stepped out of the cubicle whilst Sacha finished the endoscopy.

"I understand you've given Ellie a narcotic." Jennings asked.

"Yes. The numbing spray wasn't working, sedating her was the only way that we would have been able to successfully perform an endoscopy." Luke defended his actions.

"Was it worth it?" Jennings questioned.

"The endoscopy has proven to be inconclusive." Luke sighed.

"I thought we agreed that keeping Ellie away from narcotics was top priority." Jennings said.

"I know, but Ellie is a minor and she was not in any condition to make decisions with the amount of pain she was in." Luke said.

"And what about her father? Did you make sure he wasn't high when you asked him?" Jennings said almost berating Luke.

"She was in so much pain, this was the right call to make." Luke said in retaliation.

"I think it might have been the right call for you, Luke. But for Ellie, we'll just have to wait and see." Jennings said, before he walked away.

Luke was left standing outside Ellie's cubicle feeling like an F2 who had just made a stupid mistake. Luke went into the staffroom and sat on one of the sofas. with his head in his hands. When there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." Luke called out.

The door opened and shut, and Luke didn't even look up to see who it was.

"Rough day?" Zoe asked as she sat down next to him and handed him a coffee.

"I can't believe what I just did." Luke said to her.

"And what exactly did you do?" Zoe wondered as she sipped from her own coffee.

"I have this teenage patient, the one who threw up on me earlier, and she is adamantly refusing drugs because there is a history of addiction in the family. But I just convinced her heroin addicted father to give her pain medication anyway, despite the fact he might have been seeing flying pink elephants as he gave his consent. What the hell was I thinking?" Luke said despaired. Zoe didn't answer instead she just looked at him. "What?"

"Do you know, going against patients wishes because you think you know better sounds exactly like what you were telling Zosia not to do when you were on Darwin the other week. What's wrong with her anyway?" Zoe said to him.

Just then Luke's pager started beeping and then a patient started screaming. He stood and to see it was Ellie, she was throwing her arms around and trying to push past nurses and get out of her cubicle.

"That's her!" Luke shouted to Zoe as he ran out of the staffroom.

Luke ran to Ellie.

"Ok Ellie, it's me!" Luke said trying to get her to listen.

"Get the spiders off of me!" She screamed not listening to Luke.

"Get me five of Haldol." Luke said to Fletch.

"Get them off me!" Ellie continued to scream.

"I'll page Dr Charles." Zoe said as she picked up the phone.

"Luke!" Fletch said as he handed Luke the sedative.

Luke tried to restrain Ellie. Sacha came running over to help.

"What's happened?" He asked.

"I don't know." Luke said as he injected the sedative.

Ellie began to calm down almost instantly and her legs gave way beneath her as she fell asleep. Luke caught her and sat down on the floor as she completely became a dead weight to him.

Luke and Sacha carried her back into her bed. Just then Dr Jennings arrived.

"What happened?" He asked.

"She just had a psychotic episode." Luke said as he sat down next to her.

Luke pulled on a pair of gloves and began to suture her arm where she had pulled the canula out and made it worse when she fell over.

"She comes in with acute stomach pain and vomiting, and then has a psychotic episode. You were right, I should not have given her that narcotic. Although I've never known them to cause hallucinations before." Luke said as he finished is sutures. "I'm at a loss, the ball is well and truly in your court. Whatever is causing this must be psychotic."

"You know what, I'm not entirely sure that I agree." Jennings said. "When you scoped her did you give her benzo or an opiate."

"An opiate, fentanyl." Luke said.

"Was it effective?" Jennings asked.

"Very, she was out within seconds. Why?" Luke said.

"I have a theory that the stomach pain and psychotic episode are linking. If that's the case, then the whole thing is entirely physiological." Jennings told Luke. "Will you excuse me for a second?"

"Of course." Luke smiled.

Luke watched as Jennings went over and spoke to Ellie's dad.

About a half an hour passed before, Dr Jennings back to Luke and asked if they could go and speak to Ellie together.

"Hey Ellie, how are you doing?" Luke asked.

"You gave me drugs." Ellie said annoyed.

"I didn't feel like we had any other choice." Luke explained.

"And what are these?" Ellie asked concerning the restraints around her wrists.

"You had what we would call a delusional episode." Dr Jennings began.

"So, I'm going crazy?" Ellie asked.

"No, not at all. In fact, we think that it might be related to your stomach pain." Dr Jennings continued.

"Ellie, have you changed your diet at all recently?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, a little. I've just started eating salads more at lunch." Ellie said.

"And your attack last year, had you changed your diet again then too?" Jennings asked.

"Yeah I guess, it was just before we went on holiday, I…I wanted to wear a bathing suit." Ellie said embarrassed. "Why?"

"We believe you may have a disease called Acute Intermittent Porphyria or AIP for short." Luke said.

"It's a genetic disorder that causes severe stomach pain along with episodes of psychosis. Carbohydrates help to control it, so your latest flare up had been brought on by your change in diet again." Dr Jennings continued. "Long term, AIP can be treated and managed but in the short term an opiate will help to manage your pain."

"An opiate?" Ellie asked concerned.

"Yes, but we will carefully manage your dosage." Luke reassured her.

"As long as I don't turn out like my dad." Ellie said.

"Ellie, your dad helped us reach this diagnosis. Like I said, it's a genetic condition so its likely your father has had it all these years and has been using to self-medicate his own pain." Dr Jennings said.

"So, this is why he's an addict?" Ellie asked.

"It's probably a factor. He would have felt the same pain that you did when he was your age and without the proper help or diagnosis, he came up with his own way to help with the pain." Luke said. "We still need to run the test diagnose the condition, but it will almost certainly come back positive. We'll leave you to get some rest."

Luke and Jennings both left Ellie to get some rest. They ran the rest on both Ellie and her father it came back positive for the both of them. Luke was watching them both from the diagnosis and they both looked so happy. Sacha came and stood next to him.

"They look pleased." Sacha said to Luke.

"We've run the tests and it came back positive for both them. Mr Taylor had it too but never knew about it. All her life, she thought he was an addict who didn't care and now she sees' it was his way of coping." Luke smiled. "Thanks for your help to day Sacha."

"Pleasure as always, Luke." Sacha said as he shook his friends' hand.

Luke watched his friend walk into the lift and back up to his normal ward. Luke turned around and picked up the next patient file and got straight back to work.


	13. Chapter 13

Luke was stood waiting outside the ambulance bay doors waiting for the victims of an RTC on the motorway. Luke always enjoyed the adrenaline rush of when the ambulance pulled in and he didn't know what state the victims would be in when the ambulance doors opened, and the paramedics jumped out. Right on cue, the ambulance came hurtling towards the ED and Dixie opened the doors.

"Is this the driver?" Luke asked.

"No, it's the passenger." Dixie said as she helped Iain get the patient out. Dixie began the handover as they walked into resus. "Liam Wright, 28. Took a nosedive through the windscreen about half an hour ago. He's got a head injury and suspected pelvic injury. He KO'd at the scene. Fluctuating GCS of 14, pulse is 110, BP is 130 over 80, SATS at 85%. We have immobilised him at the scene and I've given 250 of normal saline. I offered him morphine, but he has refused all analgesics. Right let's get him over on 3, please."

Dixie moved Liam across on to the bed whilst Luke quickly scanned the notes that he had been handed. Tess and Lily. came in and joined Luke with Tom and Rita following closely behind.

"Tom, Rita there is another one coming in." Luke told them.

Both turned around and walked back out. Liam screamed out in pain as he was moved.

"Ok, Lily begin a primary survey please." Luke said.

"Airway clear, trachea central, good breath sounds bilateral. He's tachycardic, somewhere between 110 and 120. Bruising to the right lower abdomen and to the right side of his pelvis." Lily said to Luke.

"Ok, let's get a CT from head to toe please, as soon as possible. Can we draw up 10 of morphine?" Luke said to Tess.

Through the oxygen mask covering his face, Liam voiced resistance to the morphine.

"Liam buddy, it's the best pain relief I can offer you." Luke said trying to reason with him.

"I can't. If I take it again, I will lose my daughter." Liam said breathlessly.

"I can't find a vein Luke." Tess said to him.

"Ok then Liam I understand what you're saying I'll get the next best thing. Tess, can we give him the Entonox." Luke said.

Tess nodded and gave Liam some gas and air. Just then Liam's brother came in with Tom and Rita asking to see his brother (the driver in the RTC), they tried to keep him calm, but he was desperate to see his brother. Liam tried to sit up.

"Woah, Liam I need to stay perfectly still." Liam said gently lying him flat.

Liam started to retch.

"Ok, let's roll him over so he can vomit." Luke said to his team.

The team carefully rolled Liam onto his side. Once he was done vomiting, he began to seize. This distress Liam's brother further.

"Ok, Lily you are going to intubate him." Luke told her. "I'll be right here with you."

Lily came around and stood by Liam's head. Luke gave Liam some drugs to control his seizure, when the seizure had stopped Luke handed over to Lily. Once Lily had to the tube and bag in place, Luke listened in to make sure that the tube was in the right place.

"Perfect, good bilateral air sounds." Luke said. "Let's get that secured and get him on his way as quick as we can, CT are ready for him."

Liam was back down and heading back into resus within half an hour of going up for his scan.

"Ok let's give him an IV mannitol infusion to see if that will reduce the edema." Luke said to Tess.

"Doctor!" Liam's brother, Artie, called out. "Will he be ok?"

"So, the CT scan shows that he has what we would call an epidural hematoma, which is a clot on the brain caused by a burst blood vessel. It is a serious injury and he will be sent up to theatre in the next few minutes." Luke explained.

"I knew he would end up like this or dead in some junkie squat." Artie said to himself.

"I think he was clean. When he came in, he was in terrible pain and we offered him morphine, but he refused it because he didn't want to risk losing his little girl." Luke reassured Artie before walking away.

Luke went back to check on Liam before he was sent off to theatre. When suddenly a phone started to ring within Liam's possessions.

"That sounds like Liam's phone. Can you get it?" Artie asked.

"Sure." Luke smiled.

Luke went through the bag of possessions that had been brought in with Liam and answered the phone.

"Hello." Luke said.

"Right Liam, are you messing me about…" The male voiced said aggressively on the other end of the phone.

"Woah, I'm not Liam. I'm a doctor at Holby City hospital, Liam has been involved in a car accident. I'll just pass you over to his brother." Luke explained as he handed the phone to Artie.

Luke went back over to Liam, but he could hear Artie arguing with whoever was on the other end of the phone. Luke listened to everything he could hear but didn't say anything because he decided it wasn't his place to get involved.

About an hour had passed and Luke was still waiting for Liam to come back from surgery, Luke realised that he needed to go back to resus and get it prepped from Liam came back from his operation. When he walked back in, he saw the Artie was on the phone again. Luke was stood signing some paperwork when Artie called out for him.

"Doctor! Quick it's Liam's little girl, something's wrong with her she's not waking up." Artie shouted.

Luke waved from Fletch to come over and they both jogged over to Artie where Luke took the phone.

"Hello?" Luke asked.

"Yeah it's the girl, she's not breathing properly." The man said.

"Ok tell us where you are, and I can organise an ambulance to be sent." Luke said calmly.

"No, no there's no time for that." The man said panicked.

"Why not?" Luke asked.

"She's all blotchy in the face and she's gone all floppy and umm…her lips have all swollen…and her breathing…it's umm errr…it's…just listen." The man said.

Luke gestured for Fletch to listen. The man had put the phone up to the girl's mouth.

"I can hear wheezing." Fletch said.

"Yeah same, she might be having an allergic reaction." Luke turned his attention back to the man on the end of the phone. "Look, she needs urgent medical attention."

"Yeah and I need you to help me now!" The man shouted.

"The inhaler that we found in Liam's things." Fletch said to Luke. "If she's got asthma, she might have other allergies too."

"What's her name?" Luke asked Artie.

"Brianna. Brianna Erin Wright. Please help her." Artie said.

Fletch ran to the computer in resus. Luke followed him and put the phone on speaker.

"Yep got her, she's got a history of being atopic." Fletch said to Luke.

"Right listen to me, Brianna is a high-risk patient, she is allergic to lots of things. Has she eaten anything recently?" Luke asked the man.

"Just some biscuits." The man said.

Fletch pointed at one of her allergies, nuts.

"Ok she is allergic to nuts, so this could be anaphylaxis." Luke said.

"Is she going to die?" The man asked.

"Right I need you to go through her pockets because according to her records she should be carrying an epi-pen on her, it's is going to look like a small syringe in a hard case." Luke said to the man clearly.

"Ok, ok." The man said.

"If she hasn't got it, they are in real trouble." Fletch said to Luke.

"What's going on?" Artie called out.

Luke picked up the phone and went back over.

"I've got this under control." Luke reassured him.

"Hello…yeah I've got it." The man said.

"Ok good. I need you to take the cap off, once you've done that you'll see a small needle, be careful not to touch it but I need to you stab it into the muscly bit of her arm." Luke explained.

"What? I'm not doing that to a little girl." The man protested.

"It's perfectly safe and you will save her by doing it." Luke reassured him.

There was a brief pause of a few seconds, it felt like it was taking longer that it should.

"I've done it." He said.

"Good, good. Now it will take a few minutes before it starts to work. Please can you tell us where you are so we can send an ambulance to help you." Luke said.

"No, you can't." The man replied.

"Look I don't care what situation you are in, but you will be in a lot more trouble if Brianna dies." Luke told him sternly.

"Ok…ok…I'll put in her in the car and I'll be there in ten minutes." The man said.

"No wait…don't do that." Luke pleaded but the man had hung up.

Luke tried to redial the number, but it went straight through to voicemail. Luke let out a heavy sigh.

"What?" Fletch asked.

"He's gone." Luke said.

"No, no, no..." Artie said.

"Artie mate, you need to tell me everything you know about this man." Luke said to Artie.

Luke was waiting outside the hospital for the man to bring Brianna. He started to pace when a bald-headed man approached him.

"Have you got my money?" He asked rather aggressively.

"Yeah here you go." Luke said as he handed over an envelope of money. "Now where's Brianna?"

"This isn't enough, he promised me four hundred!" He man shouted at Luke.

The man started to shove Luke and try to reach for his wallet. Luke pushed him back and he fell to the floor. Security came running over to stop the man from attacking Luke again.

"Where is that little girl!" Luke shouted.

"I'm not saying until I get my money!" The man shouted back.

He tried break free from security, but they held him. Luke bent down and picked up his wallet and the envelope and put them in his pocket. He asked security to call the police. He then ran around the corner from where the man had come from to see if he could find Brianna. He looked through car windows and called out her name, but he was having no luck. Luke was beginning to doubt that Brianna had been brought at all but then as he looked in one final car, he saw her.

Luke threw the doors open and bent down to check if she was alright.

"Brianna darling, can you hear me?" Luke asked. "Ok sweetheart, just pop your arms around my neck and hold on nice and tight."

Luke picked Brianna up and ran back to the ED.

"Open the doors." He shouted at two nurses who were waiting outside. Luke ran through reception towards paediatric resus. "Can I get some help?"

Fletch, Charlie and Zoe came running over as soon as he saw them.

"What have we got Luke?" Zoe asked.

"This is Brianna, 8-years-old. She's unresponsive and has known allergies. Query anaphylactic shock but she's had a shot from an epi-pen ten minutes ago." Luke explained.

Once they got her into resus, Luke laid Brianna down on the bed. Luke started to take off Brianna's cardigan so they could run tests and put her on the monitors.

"Ok darling, let's get this off you eh?" Luke smiled.

Zoe began her primary survey.

"Ok airway's clear but her lips are swollen. Breathing is a bit fast and with an audible wheeze." Zoe said.

Luke picked up the oxygen mask and popped it over her face. "This mask is super special it's going to make easier for you to breath my darling ok."

Brianna nodded.

"You are being so brave." Luke smiled.

"Cap refill is five seconds." Zoe said to Luke.

"Ok she's tachycardic, pulse 160, BP 70 over 30. Everything is off the scale." Fletch said.

Brianna suddenly went floppy.

"She's gone into shock." Luke said, Zoe stepped back and let Luke work because he had better knowledge on paediatrics than she did. "Fletch let's have some adrenaline, 0.3 mills of one in a thousand. Charlie let's get a line in of 240 mills of saline and 100 milligrams of hydrocortisone and five of chlorpheniramine. Venus gases and bloods, a paediatric intensivist."

"Adrenaline in." Fletch told Luke.

Nothing was worked for a while but eventually she began to stabilise. The paediatric doctor arrived and began to assess her. Luke sat in a chair next to Brianna and held her hand whilst she slept, and she was getting checked over. Just as the paediatric doctor finished listening to her heart, Brianna woke up.

"Hi there Brianna." Luke smiled.

"Ok breathing is a lot better now." The paediatric doctor said to Luke.

Just then the resus doors opened and Fletch was bringing in Artie.

"Oh Brianna, thank God." Artie said breathing a sigh of relief. "Is she alright doc?"

"This is what we at this hospital call a good result." Luke smiled. He turned to Charlie. "Can we prep her for ICU?"

"Sure." Charlie said.

Luke reached into his pocket and gave Artie his money back.

"How did you manage that?" Artie asked.

"He won't be bothering you for a while." Luke reassured him as he stood up.

Just as Luke was about to leave, Brianna asked him a question. "Where's my dad?"

"He's not been very well, but I will go and find out how he is because I've been looking after him too." Luke said to her.

Luke left resus and went to go and check on Liam.

"Luke!" He heard Zoe call out.

Luke wandered over. "Yep?"

"I gather that the guy that brought her was mentally unstable?" Zoe asked.

"Yeah he was, but all in a day's work." Luke reassured.

"Why didn't you call security before he attacked you and not after." She asked.

"He probably would have done a runner if he saw me with them, look I've handled far more unstable warlords than him." Luke smiled.

"I forget you were a solider sometimes, I really do." Zoe laughed.

"So do I. Oh, how's Liam? Brianna was asking after him." Luke asked.

"He's going to make a full recovery. Good work today." Zoe said to him.

"Thanks chief." He saluted at her jokingly.

Luke finished his shift and was coming back downstairs from his office when he heard Robyn calling out after him.

"Luke! Are you coming to the party later?" She asked.

"Ugh…I don't know it's been a busy day and what with pregnant wife at home and I don't have a babysitter for Lilia." Luke said her sarcastically.

"Oh, ok." She said upset.

"Or maybe, I was going home to drop off my bag and pick up my expectant wife who sorted out care for Lilia earlier with our neighbour." He said laughing.

"Oh yay! It will be great to see Alice; I'll see you over there." She smiled as she walked away.

Luke went home and opened the door.

"Hiya!" Alice called out.

"Hey." He replied as he bent down and picked up the post.

Luke into the kitchen where Alice was and planted a kiss on her lips. As he sorted through the letters, he noticed that one of the letters had come from Australia. He opened it up and read it, the he read it again. He then sat down in one of the dining table chairs.

Alice turned around to see what was going on.

"Are you ok?" Alice asked.

Luke shook his head and handed Alice the letter. Like Luke she read the letter a couple of times before she sat down next to him and hugged him.

"Luke, I'm so sorry." She said as she kissed his check.

The letter had come from the hospice that his mum had been staying in Brisbane. She had finally succumbed to her cancer.

Lara had died.

Luke's head was rushing with emotion, he didn't know what he was feeling. She was dead. What was he going to say to Lilia, how would he explain it to her? She was still so young. He read the letter again, the funeral was in a couple of days. He would have to speak to Zoe about some emergency compassionate leave.

Lilia came into the kitchen.

"Lukey? You're crying?" She said quietly.

Luke looked at his sister and smiled at her. "I'm fine, it was just a sad day at work."

"Ok." She said as she put her rubbish in the bin and went back upstairs.

"What are you going to tell her?" Alice asked.

"I don't really know." Luke said as he wiped a tear from his cheek.

"Are you sure still want to go out tonight?" She asked.

"No, I need to stay here and sort getting to Australia and all that stuff. I'll have to go out for a bit to go and see Zoe and some emergency leave, she'll understand." Luke told his wife.

"Ok." Alice smiled. "I'll go tell Pauline we won't need her."

Alice left the kitchen and went upstairs. Luke looked at the letter again before going upstairs and knocking on his sister's door.

"Hey." Luke said as he opened the door.

Luke sat down on the floor next to his sister who was on her bed. She reached out and hugged him.

"Are you ok?" She asked.

"I've been better. Look Lils I need to tell you something that's very sad and it's ok if you get sad too and I will answer any questions that you have too because it's important that you understand." Luke said.

Lilia didn't say anything, she just nodded. Luke lifted her off of her bed and on to his lap and started to stroke her bright ginger hair.

"Now you remember telling you that we don't see our mummy because she isn't very well and she won't get better, and she's had to go away so we don't get too sad because of her being ill." Luke began and Lilia nodded. "Well mummy has gone to a very special place where she is going to do a very long sleep with Benji."

Benji was the hamster that Maisie had once, and she let Lilia look after him when she went to university, but he died pretty soon after.

"Well, she's going to play with Benji and make sure he's ok all the time but this means that we won't be able to see her again…"

"She's died, like Maisie's mummy and daddy have." Lilia said to him.

Luke looked at her for a few seconds before answering her.

"Well yeah. She has died. But you don't have to think of it as this scary thing because it means that mummy is safe and happy again. I know you might not remember her very well because you were only little when she went on holiday, but she loved you very much and I do too and so does Alice and just because Mummy has gone doesn't mean we won't stop looking after you. Do you have any questions?"

Lilia looked at him.

"Will you die?" She asked.

"Eventually, but not for a very long time." Luke said. He kissed the top of his sister's head. "Do you have anything to ask?"

Lilia shook her head.

"Now one more thing. I will have to go on a holiday of my own to go and say goodbye to mummy properly but you won't have to come to that because it will be too sad for you but Alice will be here to look after you and I will be back before you know it." Luke explained.

"Ok." She said as she turned around to hug him.

Lilia stood up and climbed back on to her bed. Luke stood up and walked out and shut the door. When he did, Alice was stood in the doorway of their bedroom.

"How is she?" Alice asked.

"She understood. Just keep an eye on her whilst I'm out." Luke said as they walked downstairs.

"Of course, and you take as long as you need there, friends are the sort of people you need at a time like this." Alice said.

"Are you sure? I don't want to still go out and you not be there."

"I'm a bit tired anyway, these two haven't stopped kicking all day. I wouldn't have been great company. I'll look for flights for you, I'll see if I can get you out there as soon as."

Luke kissed his wife and drove back to the hospital to see Zoe.

Luke opened the door to the pub and his friends came over to greet him.

"Pint Luke?" Fletch asked.

Luke nodded his head. "Ok."

"Luke, where's Alice?" Robyn asked cheerfully when she came over. She then saw he didn't have his usual happy smile. "Are you ok?"

"I'll come chat in a minute." Luke said to her.

Fletch handed Luke his pint on the way past and he found Zoe stood at the end of the bar. She greeted him with a friendly hug but like Robyn she saw he wasn't looking very happy.

"Are you ok?" She asked.

"Not really, that's why I'm here to be honest. I got a letter today, my mum's died in Australia." Luke explained.

"Oh, Luke I'm so sorry. Is Lilia ok?" Zoe asked.

"She took it better than I thought, but I don't think she remember mum very well because she was only three when she left. Look, I'm here because I want to take some emergency leave to go there for the funeral, I know it's short notice but…" Luke said, he was speaking and didn't realise when he needed to stop.

"Of course, you weren't meant to be in for the next couple of days anyway so I can sort out a locum in that time. How long do you need?" Zoe smiled sympathetically.

"Two weeks, just so I can go to the funeral and sort out her things." He said as she drunk his beer.

"Considered it sorted." She said as she gave him another hug.

"Thanks Zoe." He smiled.

Luke spent a couple of hours with his friends and they offered their support and said they would help Alice and check in with her whilst he was away, so she didn't get too stressed considering she was six months pregnant. They offered to look after Lilia for a couple of nights. He even got a text from Jac, Elliot and Sacha offering their help. Luke was so grateful of all his friends that he had at the hospital.

When got home, he found that Alice had managed to book him a flight leaving from Heathrow in London tomorrow evening. He spent some time packing and went to bed.

Sacha drove them to the airport in the morning. Luke got out the car and thanks to Sacha and went inside with Alice and Lilia. He said his goodbyes to the both of them.

Just as he was about to go check in his bags, Alice coughed and told him to turn around. Stood behind him were two people he didn't expect to be there. Luke couldn't help but cry as he went over to them and hugged them both.

"Well we couldn't exactly let you go by yourself now could we." One of them said.


	14. Chapter 14

Luke was stood in the departures lounge of Heathrow Airport ready to get on a plane to attend the funeral of his mum, Lara, following her death after she succumbed to her terminal cancer. When he arrived at the airport, he didn't expect to be surprised by the arrival of two of the most important people in his life. One was Adam Trueman, Luke's former colleague and friend, and the other was Maisie, Luke's adopted teenage daughter.

"Well we couldn't exactly let you go by yourself now could we." Adam said to him as he patted his friend on the back.

Luke let them both go and wiped the tears from his eyes.

"But how did you know?" Luke asked.

"Who do you think told us?" Maisie said.

Luke turned around and went over to hug his wife and kissed the top of her head.

"Thank you." He whispered to her.

"Like they said, I couldn't let you go to other side of the world by yourself now." Alice smiled back at him.

"But how?" Luke wondered.

"Some things are best left unanswered now aren't they." She told him. "Right you need to go and sort yourself out otherwise all this rushing around would have been for no reason."

Luke said goodbye to Alice and Lilia. He reassured his little sister that he would be back before he knew it.

The trio checked in their bags and went through security. As they had arrived at the airport extra and they had got through airport security quicker than they had expected they still had enough time to have one last decent meal before they got on the plane.

Luke was half listening to the conversation Maisie and Adam about her time at med school. Luke was too busy thinking about his mum's funeral and what he would say if anyone asked him or if he was expected to say anything during the service.

"Are you ok mate?" Adam asked.

Luke shook his head back into reality. "Yeah, sorry. Just thinking about things."

Adam put a supportive hand on his friends' shoulder. "We're here for you no matter what."

"Thanks." Luke half smiled back at his friend.

Just then their food arrived and the three of them went back to talking as they ate.

Before they knew it was time for them to board the plane and they were on their way to Australia.

Twenty-two hours on a plane and an eight-hour rest stop in a Dubai airport, the three of them arrived in sunny Australia. Luke got his phone and checked the temperature and it was a positively balmy thirty-five-degree heat.

"Now this I could get used to." Maisie said as she put her sunglasses on when they stepped outside of the airport arrivals lounge.

"Yeah so could I. However, I don't think Alice and Lilia would though." Luke said as he hailed down a taxi.

Eventually one pulled over and helped them load their cases into the boot of taxi.

"Where you off to mate?" The driver asked his strong local accent.

Luke gave them the name of their hotel and off they went. As they drove through the bustling city centre of Brisbane, they admired the sights and the beauty of the city.

Two days later…

Today was the day of Lara's funeral. Luke was pacing up and down in his hotel room thinking about all the new family members that he would that he had never seen in his life. Would he be expecting to say something if people found out who he was? How would he explain his situation? Would people like him?

Luke was disturbed by a knock on the door. He opened the door, it was Maisie.

"Ready?" She asked.

Luke nodded. "Yeah."

Maisie took his hand and they walked towards the lift.

"Where's Adam?" Luke asked.

"He's downstairs, meeting the taxi. Are you ok?" Maisie asked.

"So-so." He sighed. "Let's just get today over with and who knows. We've still got like another ten days out here to sort mum's things."

"Well at least we'll be back home just in time for Christmas." Maisie smiled as they reached the bottom.

Adam was waiting for them in the taxi. Luke and Maisie got in. Luke just stared out the window of the taxi on the way to the church. They journey to the church wasn't as long as he thought it would.

Luke got out the car, the sun was bearing down on him. He felt hotter than he had for the past two days, that might have been due to the full suit that he was wearing to the funeral. The trio got out the car and made their way the stairs to the church.

"Hi there, are you here for the funeral." A man asked.

"Umm yeah." Luke replied.

"Ah Brits, you must be from the hospital she worked at there. I'm Robert, I was Lara's brother." The man said introducing himself.

"Well I'm Luke and this is Maisie and Adam." Luke said.

"Did you say your name was Luke? As in Luke, her son." Robert asked.

"Ummm yeah, that's me." Luke said.

"Well it's a pleasure to meet you finally." Robert said violently shaking Luke's hand. "Lara told us so much about you when she moved back. She explained what had happened, I understand why you didn't come to visit seeing as she wasn't around much when you were alive, but we're glad that you're here now. I was the one that sent you the letter actually, when you didn't reply I thought maybe you wouldn't show."

"It only arrived a couple of days, so this was all very last minute." Luke apologized.

"No don't be silly. I can't help but notice your wife isn't here, Alice?" Robert wondered.

"Well she is two months away from giving birth, so we decided it was probably safest to just stay at home." Luke smiled. "I hope you aren't expecting me to get up and say something, because I didn't have anything prepared because I didn't know if I would make it or anything."

Oh no, I wouldn't do that to you. I wasn't sure if would make it either, so I don't blame you. Well you can go in and take seat, you are more than welcome to join us down the front but if that's too much you can sit a bit further back." Robert gestured.

"Thanks." Luke smiled.

The trio walked into the church and sat in one of the middle rows where no one had sat down yet.

"He seemed nice." Adam said to Luke.

"Yeah, I wasn't expecting that. I wasn't some sort of blame for not being there." Luke said.

"Well you have nothing to worry about, clearly they understand that the pair of you didn't have a great relationship. But you are here and that's all that matters." Adam said reassuringly.

Luke smiled at his friend.

They weren't waiting long and then the service began. It was a very respectful service, and Luke was happy with the way that his mother had been respected. As the three of them attended the wake, people spoke to them and asked about his job and working with his mum. Everyone was very polite and understanding of his situation.

Luke decided that he had enough and wanted to go back to the hotel. He went over to Robert to say goodbye, he left him the address of the hotel and his email address so it would be easier for him to contact him in the future. He explained that he was going to go Lara's house and sort through some of her things and asked if he wanted to join them. Robert kindly accepted and said that he would meet them there the next morning.

The trio arrived back at the hotel. Luke loosened the tie from around his neck and undid his top button.

"See wasn't a complete disaster after all?" Maisie said.

"No, you're right. I'm glad it's all over with." Luke smiled at her. "Right I'm going to have a shower, then I shall meet you in the bar for dinner in about half an hour, then we make an action plan for the next few days." Luke said confidently.

"Well you seem happier." Maisie said to him.

"Today as proven that life is for living, and I can't go on moping around. Mum wouldn't have wanted that." Luke said happily as he entered the lift.

A couple of days had passed since Lara's funeral had passed since Lara's funeral and Luke was sat in the empty shell that was once his mother's final home before she died. It had been a hard two days, but they had eventually managed to sort through all of her belongings. Must of it went to the second-hand shops. But many of the family photos were coming home with Luke or Robert.

Luke just stepped out onto the veranda of the house to admire the coastal view on last time, when Maisie came out and handed him a bottle of beer.

"Thanks." He smiled at her.

"How does it feel now that it's all gone?" Maisie asked.

"Honestly, I don't really feel that upset because this wasn't home, so I hadn't become attached to the house." Luke said as he sipped his beer.

Luke and Maisie sat next to each other just looking out over the sea. Just then, Luke stood up and walked back inside with Maisie following on behind. He shut the doors behind him and locked them. He turned around and saw Robert standing in the doorway.

"Well I guess this is it." Luke said holding out his hand to Robert.

"It's been a pleasure Luke." Robert said shaking it.

Robert said goodbye to Maisie and Adam. The three of them left the house and walked back to the hotel. They just reached the hotel of the lobby and were making plans to meet each other in the hotel bar when they all heard an ear-piercing scream followed by an almighty crash. All three of them ran outside they looked down and saw people staring in the road. They ran down the road and when they go there, they saw a woman lying in the street. She was surrounded by glass but the car that stopped, did not have a smashed windscreen but there was a large dent on the bonnet of the car.

"Call 000, and get ambulance and police down her, we need to get this road shut down." Luke said to Maisie. He knelt next to the woman and held her head by the neck. He felt a car zoom past him as he was kneeling next to the injured lady. "Did anyone see what happened?" Luke shouted out.

"She fell from up there and landed on top of the car and then rolled off and onto the road." A man said as he crouched next to Luke to explain what had happened. Just then another car flew past Luke.

"Ok thank you sir. If I could just get you to step back on to the pavement." Luke smiled.

"Police and ambulance are on the way. They've contacted the highways agency and they are going to shut down the road as soon as they can." Maisie shouted out to Luke.

Just as Luke was about to respond to Maisie, a car smashed into the car the victim had landed on and came within inches of hitting Luke.

"Luke!" Adam called out.

"Yeah, I'm ok. Can someone stopped the traffic as best you can?" Luke called back.

"Yeah, I'll try." Adam said.

"Maisie?" Luke shouted.

"Yeah?" She answered.

"See if everyone is ok in the car that has just hit this one." Luke told her.

"On it." She replied.

Luke turned his focus back to the lady that had fallen about 20 feet from the balcony of the building on to a car below. He could clearly see that she had broken her hip. She had decreased breath sounds, possible pneumothorax Luke thought to himself. She had a fractured arm and several lacerations to her face.

"Has anyone got a knife and a biro on them on them." Luke asked people stood watching him.

No-one offered anything up.

"I can promise that I won't say anything, but I need to try help this woman's breathing otherwise she will die." Luke reassured them.

Just then a man stepped forward and handed him his pocketknife and a biro too.

"Thank you. Can you just see if there is any tape or in this car please too." Luke smiled up at him.

"Sure." The man said.

Luke felt for the gap in the ribcage that Luke needed to cut into in order to inflate the lady's lung. The man came back and handed Luke some electrical tape, it was not what he would usually use but he figured that it would have to do for now. Just as Luke was about to cut into woman's chest, he heard the sirens and then saw police cars and an ambulance arrive. Two paramedics came running over.

"Thank you, sir we can take it, from here please don't do that. You've done a great job; do you mind just telling us what's happened." The paramedic said.

Luke wondered why they were trying to stop him, but then he remembered he was not in England and the paramedics that were coming weren't going to be Jeff and Dixie. He had got some caught up in the moment he forgot that he was in Brisbane and not Holby.

"Yeah, unknown female fell approximately six metres before landing on the bonnet of this car and rolling off and onto the road, landing on her back. Obvious right hip fracture and lacerations to her face, query left arm fracture with the potential of spinal injuries. As well as a tension pneumothorax, which I am just about to decompress." Luke explained.

"Sir, that is not your job please don't try anything, just put the knife down. You might have seen this on the television but its not as easy as it looks." The paramedic said to Luke.

"Do you really think I'd be sat here trying to jerry-rig my way into a helpless woman's chest if I didn't know what I was doing. Hi Dr Luke Stone, consultant in emergency medicine at a hospital in England and former frontline soldier in the British Army's medical corp." Luke explained. "Now if you don't mind me."

Luke stole the paramedics bag and found a cannula that he could use instead of a pen. Luke cut into the woman's chest and inserted to the cannula. Then came the gentle woosh of air as her lung inflated. The woman then gasped and coughed as she woke up.

"Ok, maybe you are who you say you are then." The paramedic laughed.

"I don't joke when people's lives are at stake." Luke said seriously.

Just then the woman started to wretch.

"Ok let's get her on to her side please." Luke asked the paramedics.

The paramedics helped Luke roll the woman onto her side, so she didn't choke on her vomit. As soon as she finished vomiting, she passed out again.

"Ok it's not safe to intubate as she might have a head injury that might cause her to vomit again, let's get a mask on her and a pelvic binder so we can transport her to the hospital. Oh and there might be another injury a couple of cars back, they crashed into this one before the traffic stopped. My daughter is with them, she's a student doctor."

One of the paramedics got up and went to check on Maisie. The other paramedic came back with a pelvic binder and an oxygen mask.

"This lady was very lucky that you were walking past at just the right time." The paramedic said as he helped put the binder on.

"Yeah, I guess she was." Luke smiled. "Hey, what's your name by the way."

"Mitchell." The paramedic said.

"Nice to meet you Mitchell, I'm Luke, but I already told you that." Luke smiled.

Mitchell and Luke carefully lifted the lady up on to the trolley and into the ambulance. Adam told his colleague that another ambulance was on the way and that he was going to head to the hospital with Luke. Then they were off. The journey to the hospital was going well, the woman had remained unconscious throughout.

"We are just about to pull into the ambulance now." Mitchell called back.

Just then, the woman crashed.

"Ok, she's gone into VF." Luke shouted as he got and began chest compressions.

"Do you want me to stop?" I can see the ER doors from here." Mitchell called back.

"No, keep going." Luke said as he furiously pumped the woman's chest.

Mitchell sped towards the hospital and got them outside the hospital. He opened the doors of the ambulance and helped Luke out.

"I really hope you don't choose this moment to wake up." Luke muttered to himself as he climbed onto the trolley and straddled the woman so he could continue chest compressions.

Mitchell and a nurse pushed the trolley into the ED of the hospital.

"Who the hell is this guy?" One of the doctors exclaimed as he came over.

"A British doctor, who might have just saved his woman's life." Mitchell said as they ran into resus.

Mitchell completed the handover and Luke climbed off the woman and let the doctors work.

Adam and Maisie were sat nervously waiting in the hotel bar for Luke to return from the hospital. It was just then that they looked up and they saw him walking towards them. They looked at Luke hopefully but he just shook his head.

"She arrested just outside the hospital and they couldn't get her back. She'd sustained at lot of internal trauma, it wasn't a question of if, it was a question of when instead. There was a strong belief that had severed her spinal cord and would have been a tetraplegic, so maybe it was for the best. She didn't wake up at all, she didn't suffer, it was very peaceful." Luke said as he sat down.

"Well you did everything you could have mate." Adam said as he patted him on the shoulder.

"I know." Luke smiled.

The rest of their time in Australia was over before they knew it and they were walking back threw arrivals in bitterly cold England in December, in just shorts and t-shirts.

"Oh, I forgot that we were coming back to minus degree weather and it wasn't still going to be forty." Maisie shivered as she felt around for a jacket in her suitcase.

Luke was doing the same when suddenly he was being knocked off of his feet and a pair of arms wrapped themselves around him.

"Lukey!" Lilia said as she hugged her brother.

"Hey sis." Luke said as he picked her up.

Just then Alice came over and hugged him too, as well as pulling in Maisie. Luke looked over Alice's shoulder and saw that Adam was being greeted by Jessica and Oliver.

"So how was it? Relaxing?" Alice asked.

"Not as relaxing as you think." Luke smiled to himself.


	15. Chapter 15

It was Luke's first day back at work, after his trip to Australia for his mum's funeral. He had been itching to get back to work for a long time and was glad to be back doing what he loved. Zoe had been called away for the day, so he was in charge. He just stepped out of his office when he saw Lily walking past.

"Ah Lily, just the person that I was looking for. I've got a special job for you." Luke said as he grabbed her attention.

"I'm already with a patient." Lily replied.

"Luke." Louise said as she walked towards him.

"One second, Louise." Luke told her. Luke turned his attention back to Lily. "I've got a new doctor starting today."

"He's already here and he is a bit well…odd." Louise interrupted.

"Oh, well. What is time the Louise?" Luke asked.

"About half past nine." She replied.

Luke gestured at Lily for her to follow him. Luke walked into reception with Louise who pointed out where the new doctor was. He was a young guy with glasses, he was already looking after a woman who was sat in a chair holding onto her arm.

"Dr Hardy?" Luke called out.

The man came jogging over holding his hand out for Luke to shake. "Ethan. Dr Stone pleasure to meet you."

"Luke, please. I was expecting you at nine." Luke said to him.

"Yes, sorry about that I was with a patient. I did try to explain…Art student apparently, fallen from a step ladder. Something about an abstract art piece, I didn't really understand. Art students what are they for." Ethan laughed to himself.

Luke chuckled to himself and Lily just looked confused.

"Sorry I'm prattling." Ethan apologized.

Luke opened the door to his office and went and sat behind his desk and gestured for Ethan to sit down.

"It's ok, just take a deep breath and relax. Ethan, I'd like to introduce you to Lily Chao. Lily, Ethan Hardy our new SPR. He's coming back to the shop floor, after a sabbatical." Luke picked up, Ethan's file. "He was with HEMS for a year in London, before he took up a research fellowship looking at coagulopathy in trauma patients with his main focus being early platelet disfunction. Very impressive."

"Oh, it wasn't really that impressive, I was more of a glorified copy boy." He smiled.

"He's also very modest." Luke turned to Lily. "I'd like you to work with Ethan today, show him the ropes."

"This is the special job?" Lily questioned.

"This is the special job." Luke repeated as he ushered the two of them out of his office.

Once they had left, he shut his door and sat behind his desk. It was a relatively quiet morning for Luke, nothing major had required his attention, so he was able to get on with plenty of paperwork. It was mid-afternoon, when he went to check if everything was going ok, when he saw Jeff and Dixie coming in with a patient. By this point Luke, was incredibly bored of his paperwork and decided to take the patient in order to give himself something better to do.

"Hi, what have he we got here?" Luke asked Dixie.

"This is Carol Walker, 43. She had a fall with an obvious fracture to her right wrist and she's got no other injuries. I've given her five of morphine and some Entonox." Dixie said.

"Right, this cubicle here." Luke said pointing to the cubicle was waiting. He drew back the curtain to let Dixie push the wheelchair in. "Tess, this is Carol. Let's get her into a gown and then we can sort out sending her for an x-ray."

Dixie handed Carol her jacket and told her that she would pop back and check on her later.

Luke was walking through the ED with Carol's x-ray results, when he passed Lily who was noticeably by herself carrying a coffee.

"Dr Chao, I thought I asked you to look after Dr Hardy?" Luke asked.

"You did." Lily replied.

"Well where is he then?" Luke wondered.

"Well he's ummm…he's umm…" Lily stuttered.

Just then Ethan appeared. "He's right here." He took the coffee out of Lily's hands and took a sip. "Thanks."

Luke carried on walking and watched as they walked in the opposite direction. He went back to Carol's cubicle.

"So I've had a look at the x-rays you've had done, and it's a nice clean fracture so no need for any surgery but you will need to have it put into a cast. So I'm just going to go and grab the plaster trolley and then I'll be right back." Luke smiled.

"Ok thanks, doc." Carol smiled.

Luke got the trolley and brought it back into Carol's cubicle. Luke prepped himself whilst Tess explained what was going to happen.

"Ok, we are just going to inject you with some local anesthetic whilst we straighten out your arm."

Just then, someone drew back the curtain of the cubicle. It was Dixie.

"Can I just have a word with Carol?" She asked.

"Sure, the more the merrier." Luke said as he drew up the local anesthetic and injected it into Carol's arm. "Ok, that's the local anesthetic in."

Dixie stepped into the cubicle and pulled the curtain back.

"How bad is it?" Carol asked Dixie.

"It looks bad, but it's a common enough fracture." Dixie reassured her.

"Like we've said you will be in plaster though, so it will slow you down. Do you have anyone at home that can help at all?" Luke asked, as he waited for the anesthetic to kick in.

"No not really…but ummm…err I suppose…umm…" Carol kept looking to Dixie as she tried to think of an answer.

"Well I better get going, otherwise Jeff will start to wonder where I've got to." Dixie said as she stepped out the cubicle.

"Thanks for popping by." Carol said.

Luke followed Dixie out.

"Dix, if you want a bit of time…" Luke said to her.

Dixie looked at Luke confused to begin with and then realized what he meant.

"No, no, no, it's not like that. I was just checking up on her." Luke raised his eyebrows at his friend. "Is it that obvious?" She asked.

Luke nodded.

"Can you not tell Jeff I was here, it's just a bit…" Dixie couldn't find the right word to finish her sentence.

"Complicated?" Luke wondered. Dixie nodded. "My lips are sealed." Luke told her.

"Cheers mate." Dixie smiled.

Luke turned around and went back into to see Carol.

"Right, that should be enough time for anesthetic to kick in. Ready Tess?" Luke said as he picked up Carol's arm.

Tess supported Carol's arm from her shoulder and Luke pulled the arm to manipulate the fracture back into place.

Carol winced.

Luke was seeing to another patient, when suddenly Tess came running in.

"It's Carol Walker, she take a severe turn for the worst."

Luke checked with Robyn is she was going to be ok. Luke then followed Tess to Carol who was coming out of the lift on a trolley.

"No back in there please, straight up to CT. I'm calling them now and she is becoming priority one on their list." Luke told the porters. "What happened?"

"I have no idea; we were just talking normally about her aftercare and then all of sudden she complained of head pain and started to vomit before collapsing." Tess explained.

"Ok, can you go with her to CT and I'm going to call them but if you get there first don't take no for an answer she needs to be seen right away.

Luke held the resus door open. Ash was in there with another patient who was stable. "Ash, are you available I'm going to need a second pair of hands over here." Luke called out as Carol was wheeled through. "Ok people, stand by for an RSI and we need to intubate and sedate."

Luke ran over to Carol. "We'll need to wait for the neurosurgeon, but her CT has come back with a large extradural hemorrhage."

"Neurosurgery can't take her for another half an hour." Tess told Luke.

"No, she needs someone right now. Tess, you know the drill, we aren't taking no for an answer." Luke told Tess. He then turned his attention to one of the other nurses. "Draw up some mannitol for me please. Try and take it nice and easy Carol."

"There is still no one available." Tess said to Luke.

"Ok, she's under." Ash said.

"Let's get the tube in ready to ventilate her." Luke said to him.

Luke inserted the tube and listened to see whether it was in the right place.

"Yep, we're in. Thanks Ash, we can take it from here." Luke said to his team.

"Neurosurgeons are on their way." Tess said to Luke.

"Let's get her on the ventilator and ready to for theatre." Luke said to one of the nurses. He pulled Tess to one said. "Can you get someone to inform Dixie of what has happened so she can see her before she goes into theatre."

Tess nodded and walked out to reception to try and get into contact with ambulance control.

A couple of hours had passed when Luke got a call. Just as he was putting the phone down, Tess came walking over. Luke just shook his head.

"She barely made it to theatre." Luke told her.

Just then, Dixie came walking over.

"How's Carol?" She asked rather chirpily, not knowing the true extent of what was going on.

Luke and Tess looked at each other and then back at Dixie.

"Let's go into Zoe's office, Dixie." Luke suggested.

"No, tell me straight what's happened?" She said.

"There was a rather large extradural hemorrhage and they just couldn't get the bleeding under control…" Luke began to explain.

"No. It was just her wrist. If she had hurt, her head she would have told you or me. She would have told me."

"She didn't even know herself, but by the time she realized it was just too late." Tess said to her.

Dixie couldn't believe what she was hearing, she turned around and ran outside. Tess tried to chase after her, but Luke stopped her. Tess walked back over.

"Did we miss something?" Tess asked Luke.

"No, we didn't miss anything." Luke assured her.

An hour had passed since Luke had told Dixie about Carol when there was a knock on the door to his office.

"Yep." Luke called out as he looked up from his computer. It was Jeff. "Jeffrey, what have I done to deserve this pleasure?"

"You haven't seen Dixie, around have you?" He asked.

"Not since about an hour ago. Why?" Luke asked worried.

"I saw her come out of here and she was in a right state. I haven't seen her since, she's not answering any her phone. Truth be told mate, I'm worried." Jeff said panicked.

"I think you better sit-down mate." Luke said.

Luke explained to Jeff, what had happened to Carol and how upset Dixie was.

"Oh geez." Jeff said. "I just have no idea where she could be Luke. I've tried everywhere that I can think of."

Just then Luke had an idea. "I think I might know."

Luke walked over to the ambulance station and knocked on one of the doors. Dixie opened the door.

"How did you find me?" Dixie asked.

"This old dog has still got a few tricks up his sleeves." He laughed. "Look, Jeff is really worried, he's had everyone looking all over for you. I told him what happened."

"I can't believe I've lost her." Dixie whispered. "She's dead Luke, and she never knew how I felt about her. Not properly.

"Look, I know what it's like to lose someone and if you keep going over the 'what ifs' it

will only tie you up in knots." Luke said to trying Luke trying to sympathize with Dixie.

"The closest I got to telling her how I felt was that it was starting to get serious." Dixie sobbed. "But then the worst part I was thinking about ending it all again."

"Really?" Luke said surprised.

"I don't know, I thought about it." Dixie said before breaking down into tears.

"Oh, come here." Luke said pulling his friend into a hug.

"Are you alright?" A voice behind them said.

Luke turned around and saw Jeff stood there. Dixie walked over to her partner and hugged him too.

"I don't know about you two, but I could really do with a drink." Dixie said as she let go of Jeff.

"I'll never say not to a drink." Luke laughed. "I'll meet you out the front in ten minutes."


	16. Chapter 16

It was an hour into the start of Luke's shift, and he was walking through reception, when he saw a face that he had been waiting to see for a long time.

"Fletch! Welcome back mate!" Luke said happily as he went over to his friend and shook his hand.

Fletch had been suspended for professional misconduct but the charges against had recently been dropped by the board.

"It's good to be back. Fighting fight and raring to go and all that." Fletch said.

Luke left some files with Louise, in reception as he and Fletch walked through to minors. As they walked through the doors, Lily approached.

"Fletch, welcome back. I just wanted to let you know that you have my full support and I'm happy to be working alongside you again." Lily said formally as she shook his hand.

Fletch and Luke looked at each other slightly shocked and confused.

"Lily waiting to hear you say those words has kept me going in my darkest moments." Fletch said to her jokingly.

Lily walked away whilst Luke and Fletch remained where they were, but they couldn't stop themselves from having a small chuckle with each other.

"I'll see you later Luke." Luke said as he walked into the staff room.

"See you mate." Luke said as they continued to walk through minors.

Luke was walking back towards his office, when Ethan appeared out of one of the cubicles.

"Ah, Ethan. How are you? Finding your feet ok?" Luke questioned.

"I've let which vending machines need exact change and which don't." Ethan replied.

"Good. How did you the funeral go?" Luke asked.

"As well as funerals go. It's not the dead that are the problem it's the family members you try to avoid that are." He responded.

"Well we've all been there." Luke said.

"I best get on." Ethan said excusing himself.

Just as Luke was going to get back to work, he spotted Charlie.

"It's starting to get a bit jammed up in here Charlie, anyone that we can start shifting out." Luke wondered.

"Yeah, the teenager with displaced radial fracture in cubicle six, is due to go to theatre any minute now as well as cubicle two. Elderly gentleman, frequent flyer had a close encounter with the pavement thanks to a large quantity of cheap vodka." Charlie informed Luke.

"Nice." Luke sarcastically.

"So, we should be able to suture him up and send him on his way." Charlie said.

"However, he does need to be cleaned up first because he is malodourous." Tess interrupted. "Staff nurse Collier find him a shower and stick him under it."

Jamie sighed as Robyn laughed at him.

"Robyn, you can change his bed linen whilst he's taking a shower." Charlie said to her.

Jamie mocked what Robyn had just done to him as she hung her head before looking to Luke for help.

"I'm in charge of doctors." Luke said holding his hands up. "Right everyone, we need to try and clear as many cubicles as possible, we are over stretched and under manned as usual. Even though the trust has provided us with funding for a locum registrar, who is meant to be starting today, they are going to expect that to improve our statistics as well."

"We'll do our best not to breach." Charlie assured him.

"Thank you." Luke said as turned and walked away back towards the stairs.

As he was walking back towards his office, he spotted a man walking around the department wearing scrubs looking helplessly lost. Luke walked over to him.

"I'm guessing by the aimless wandering you are doing; you are my new locum. Dr Knight?" Luke said as he walked around to the man.

"Yeah, you can call me Cal." The man said to Zoe as he held his hand.

Luke shook it. "Luke, let's walk."

Luke walked back into the department to give Cal the guided tour. They walked around and Luke introduced Cal to everyone

"And finally, this is Charlie Fairhead. He is the man to ask if you have any questions around here." Luke said.

"Well I just have one, where is the staff pub?" Cal asked confidently.

"Ah, The Hope and Anchor just across the road." Charlie replied.

"Good question." Luke smiled before taking Cal to drop off his bag. "So, am I right in assuming you're ok with working in all aspects of the department?"

"Yeah, I've worked in and out of ED for the past five years now." Cal told Luke.

"Excellent." Luke said as he noticed Jeff and Dixie coming in with a patient. "Excuse me, I just need to take this."

"May I?" Cal asked. "Presumably, I'm here to treat patients and not be wheeled around like a single man at a cocktail party."

"Sure." Luke said.

The two of them walked over to the incoming patient.

"Guys this is Caleb Knight, our new locum registrar. What have we got?" Luke asked.

"Hi Caleb. This is Caitlyn Connor, seventeen-years-old. A pane of glass fell top of her from a height of about four feet, she's got several facial lacerations but unwilling to open her eyes to let us take a proper look but she does seem sensitive to light, GCS fifteen, pulse eighty and SATS ninety-five percent. I've given her five of morphine." Jeff said as they walked towards resus. "This is Roz, Caitlyn's mum."

"Hi Caitlyn, I'm one of the doctors." Cal said introducing himself to Caitlyn.

"Robyn! Jamie! Can you join us?" Luke called out. "Alright, Caitlyn we are almost there. We are just going to need you to move across to another bed in a minute sweetheart."

Jeff and Dixie wheeled the trolley into the cubicle.

"Ok darling, just wiggle your bum across to the left, nice and gently." Dixie said as she supported Caitlyn.

"Am I blind? I can't paint blind." Caitlyn asked panicked.

"She's going to art school this year; I'll never forgive myself if she's blind." Roz also said equally as scared.

"There is no reason to assume that yet." Cal reassured them both.

Dixie called Cal outside for a quick chat whilst Luke checked Caitlyn's breathing.

"Ok airway and breathing are both ok." Luke told Cal when returned. "Over to you."

Cal began to assess Caitlyn and suggested possible injuries and began to devise an action plan in order to treat her successfully. When he took her bandage off, Cal did freeze for a few seconds, but Luke put this down to first day nerves.

"Did I miss anything?" Cal asked Luke after he finished his assessment.

Luke shook his head. "No, you got it all. I trust I can let you get on with treatment in the eye cubicle."

"Sure." Cal said confidently.

About half an hour had passed, Luke was sat in his office when got a call from Charlie. A major RTC, a limousine had crashed and was hanging precariously off the edge of a suspension bridge. He knew the perfect man for the job. Cal.

Luke walked down to the eye cubicle. He saw Cal sat in there with Caitlyn. He knocked on the door.

"Are you free?" Luke asked.

"We have just finished up here." Cal said.

"Good, you file says you were an active member of BASICS?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, and I also did six months as a registrar on Heli-med twenty-one in Kent." Cal answered.

"Wonderful, I need you to attend an RTC for me, if you could meet me in reception that would be great." Luke told him. "Chat with the parents as quick as you can for me."

Luke turned and left the room and invited Caitlyn's parents into chat with Cal.

Cal ran to catch up with Luke, they both walked into reception where the TV had the RTC on the rolling news channel that was on.

"Ok, so two people are trapped inside that limo and paramedics are concerned that one of them has a chest injury so they don't want to move her. She's one of ours, Emily Gambell. She has a rare genetic abnormality of the immune system, atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome." Luke started to explain.

"Wow, that is rare." Cal said slightly impressed by her condition.

"Yeah, so we need a doctor out there as soon as. I've got your current patient file, so I'll hand that over to another doctor for you." Luke looked around the department for a spare doctor. "Ah Ethan!"

Luke gestured for Ethan to come over.

"I'd like you to meet our new locum doctor…." Luke began but was cut off.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Ethan asked Cal.

"Oh, you know each other?" Luke asked.

"What's he done with his patient?" Ethan questioned.

"Nothing." Luke and Cal answered at the same time.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Cal said defensively.

Luke looked very confused between the two of them. "I just need Dr Knight to attend an RTC."

"Cal will love that. It will be like Alton Towers for him." Ethan rather dismissively.

"How do you two know each other?" Luke wondered.

"Brothers." The two doctors answered at the same time.

"Different surnames. Knight. Hardy." Luke said even more confused.

"Yeah it's a long story." Cal sighed.

The two brothers started to bicker with each other, which only Luke found slightly amusing but also made him even more confused, but it reached a point in which Luke decided that he needed to interject.

"Is this going to be a problem for me?" Luke asked.

"No." They both answered again in-sync.

"Good." Luke said as he answered his phone. "Right the rapid response team is ready for you, so you better go."

Cal just glared at his brother as he walked away.

Luke was stood in the ambulance bay waiting for Cal to return with his patient. Within seconds of him stepping outside the ambulance arrived. Luke helped get the patient out of the ambulance.

"Ok, this is Emily Gambell, twenty-one. She was the unrestrained patients in an RTC. Injuries from top to toe are as follows: a head injury with associated lacerations, confirmed left side pneumothorax and an open left side fracture to the tibia. Observations, she is tachycardic, pulse one hundred and twenty, BP one hundred and thirty over seventy, GCS thirteen which has risen to fourteen on route. Interventions, we have had pressure dressing to lacerations, needle decompression of the pneumothorax and chest drain plus a splint to the left ankle. She's had ten of morphine and thirty of ketamine which is wearing off a bit now." Cal explained to Luke as they wheeled her into resus.

They moved Emily across onto the bed.

"Ok, I would like to repeat the primary survey." Luke said.

"Emily!" A voice called out from the next bed over.

Luke began to assess Emily. "Ok can we get the portable chest x-ray over here now please and can we attach the chest drain." Luke got his torch out and began to shine it into Emily's eyes. "Emily I know you are on dialysis but can you tell me if you've taken anything today?"

"Tell the doctor the truth Emily." A woman said, which Luke assumed was Emily's mum.

"Champagne and pills." Emily muttered quietly.

"Champagne and pills, right ok." Luke said.

"Oh Emily, you know you shouldn't you need to start taking care of yourself better." The woman said.

"Ok, excuse me." Luke said to the woman, her attention quickly switched back to the girl that called out to Emily when she came in when Ash started talking to her.

Luke was treating Emily when he heard arguing coming from cubicles. He handed over to another patient whilst he went to see what was going on. It was Cal and Ethan.

"Dr Hardy? Dr Knight?" Luke asked.

"Dr Hardy is intent on telling that I am unable to treat my patient." Cal said defensively.

"That is because you have a personal relationship with this patient." Ethan retorted.

Caitlyn's parents began to bicker with her whilst Ethan and Cal bickered amongst themselves.

"Dr Knight do you know this patient?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, we met last night." Cal said.

"We need to have a word right now in private." Luke said rather annoyed.

Luke walked to Zoe's office. When he got there, he noticed Cal was still with Caitlyn.

"Dr Knight!" Luke shouted across the department.

This made everyone stop and stare. They all watched as Cal slowly walked towards Luke and into the office. Luke shut the door, Cal stood in front of the desk whilst Luke went and sat down.

"You've got a lot of secrets haven't you. First Ethan and now this." Luke said.

"She lied about her age when I met her last night. I've never treated her before so professionally I've done nothing wrong." Cal said defending himself.

"She does look young though." Luke sighed.

"In a dark nightclub with a lot of makeup on, she looked a lot older than she is." Cal said. "Don't tell me you've never got with a girl that's younger than she looks."

"Well…that's not the point and you still should have told me about Ethan." Luke continued.

"Ethan has a way of telling people about me. I wanted you to make your own first impressions first." Cal replied.

"We'll you've certainly succeeded there alright." Luke said. "Now go home. Your shift ended ten minutes ago."

"Thank you, Dr Stone." Cal said apologetically on his way out.

"Dr Knight, don't keep secrets from again." Luke said to him firmly.

Luke went back up to his office and got his bag and came back downstairs. He saw and most of the team leaving to go for a drink at the pub.

"He's going to be a handful for you that one." Tess laughed.

"No, he's going to be a handful for us." Luke laughed back.

Just then one of the receptionists told him that there was a call waiting for him. He answered the phone and his faced dropped when the Lady on the other end of the phone told him what was happening.

"Luke? Is everything ok? Its not Alice is it?" Tess asked concerned.

"Yeah, its Alice. She's gone into labour. I need to go." Luke said slowly trying to process what had just been said to him. "Tess, please call Miss Naylor and Professor Hope and tell them the good news

Luke handed Tess his bag and he ran out of the department. He sprinted across the department, he had never been so scared and excited at the same time. The babies were coming two weeks, he wasn't prepared for this. But he was so excited to meet his babies. Luke arrived at the maternity ward and found out where Alice was. He rushed into her delivery suite. She was in there with her mum, Tracy. Luke greeted his mother-in-law. He sat down next to his wife and kissed her.

"Surprised." Alice said as she breathed through the pain.

"How dilated are you?" Luke asked.

"Nine centimetres." The midwife said.

"Why didn't you call me earlier?" Luke asked.

"Because you were working and you were would have been more use there than sitting around waiting for the action to happen." Alice told him. "You made it for the most important thing."

Alice squeezed Luke's hand. Just then Alice's consultant, Emma Todd, came in.

"Hi Luke. Well guys the good news is both babies are looking as if they are going to be positioned head first during delivery. Which obviously, you know is the best possible situation for you to be in Alice. I'm just going to examine you again Alice and see if we are ready for these twins to make an appearance in the world." Emma smiled.

Emma examined Alice and it was time.

"This is it." Alice smiled at her husband.

Emma talked Alice through the birth and on every push, Luke was glad Alice wasn't wearing any rings because she crushed his fingers. It wasn't long before twin number one arrived into the world. With number two arriving not very long after.

The sound of babies crying filled the room. Luke couldn't help but cry at the sight of his babies. He kissed his wife.

"Well done darling, they're perfect." Luke whispered to his wife.

"I'm pleased to tell you that you two healthy baby girls." Emma smiled.

The midwifes had wrapped the babies and handed one to Luke and the other to Alice.

"We made good babies." Luke laughed through his tears of joy.

"I'll be back in a bit." Emma said.

Emma, Tracy and the midwives left the new parents to get to know their babies. They both sat in silence for a little while just looking at the babies for a while.

"Is it too discuss names?" Alice asked.

"I don't think so." Luke replied.

"You first." They both said at the same time.

They smiled at each other.

"Together?" Luke suggested.

"Sure." Alice replied.

They counted down and at the same time and they both said their names.

Alice said Olivia Jade.

Luke said Erin Lara.

"Well at least we both didn't say the same thing." Luke smiled.

"That was easy." Alice smiled back.

Just then, a midwife knocked and came in.

"Sorry, but you've got some people out here for you." The midwife said.

"Thanks, I'll be two seconds." Luke said.

"Send my love." Alice told Luke.

He stood up and carefully placed his baby into the hospital cot and went outside to see who was waiting out there for him. The midwife directed him to the relatives room. He had only expected a couple of people. But the room was full.

Everyone who had just finished shift in there ED (Charlie, Tess, Zoe, Ash, Robyn, Jamie, Fletch, Rita, Ethan, Cal and Lily as well as many others) were waiting there. Dixie, Jeff and Iain had come straight from a shout. Jac, Elliot, Zosia, Jonny and Mo had all come down from Darwin. Sacha and Serena were there. Adam and Jessica bad arrived. Donna had come down from Liverpool; she must have driven at break neck speed. Tracy was waiting there too. Most importantly Maisie and Lilia were there. The only person missing was Lara but Luke knew she was watching over him.

"Well?" Jac asked impatiently.

"Two healthy and beautiful baby girls and most importantly Alice is doing fine." Luke shouted.

Everyone cheered and came over to congratulate Luke.

Luke quietened everyone down.

"Names have been chosen. Drum roll please." Luke announced. Everyone started to stamp their feet. "Olivia Jade Stone and Erin Lara Stone.

Everyone cheered and ahhh'd again. Luke asked for hush again.

"How did you all know." Luke asked.

Everyone pointed at Tess. Luke went over and gave her a massive hug.

"Thank you." He whispered too her.

"You are more than welcome." She whispered back.

"She didn't tell me." Donna protested in her thick country accent. "Alice phoned me herself."

"Donna, don't spoil the moment." Someone shouted.

Everyone laughed.

This was by far the happiest moment of Luke's life.


End file.
